Amakhosi winger Siphiwe Tshabalala has been handed the ultimate nomination as his magnificent goal for Bafana Bafana against Mexico during the opening game of the 2010 FIFA World Cup at Soccer City (FNB Stadium) in Johannesburg on June 11, was named on a list of goals nominated by FIFA as the 2010 goal of the year.

Tshabalala’s goal which was the first at the 2010 World Cup is up for the ‘Puskas Award for the best goal’, as his goal is amongst the pick of goals scored between January 1st and October 15th this year.

When informed by kaizerchiefs.com of his nomination an elated Tshabalala who is currently with Bafana Bafana preparing for Wednesday’s Nelson Mandela Challenge game against the USA in Cape Town said, “I was not aware the goal had been nominated, I am very honoured to have received this nomination. It means a lot to me to be on the same list as goals scored by players like Lionel Messi and Arjen Robben.”

Even if is his strike does not win the award at the FIFA Ballon d’Or gala 2010, which will be held at the Kongresshaus in Zurich Switzerland on 10 January 2011, for the moment Tshabalala is just reveling in having his strike on the nominees list.

“You dream of scoring in a World Cup and to be able to do that and have the goal nominated as one of the best scored in the year mean a lot, just being nominated means a lot to me.”

The nomination for his goal comes during a week which has seen Shabba help Chiefs defeat their Soweto rivals Orlando Pirates in the Soweto Derby in league action for the first time in two years, and he has also been named by coach Pitso Mosimane as Bafana Bafana’s vice captain for the match with the Americans.

Of the task handed to him by Mosimane he said, “I hope to help the captain and hopefully I will be able to display good leadership qualities on the field , and help carry out the coaches orders to the best of my best abilities. This has been a good week for me and I am grateful to all of my teammates, coaches and support staff at club and country as they have helped make it a good one for me”.

Other nominees competing with Tshabalala for the ‘Puskas’ award are Giovanni van Bronckhorst's for his strike during Holland’s 2010 FIFA World Cup semi-final victory against Uruguay, as well Hamit Altintop for Turkey, Matthew Burrows fOR Northern Irish side Glentoran, Linus Hallenius for Swedish club Hammarby, Lionel Messi for Barcelona, Samir Nasri for Arsenal, Neymar for Santos, Arjen Robben for Bayern Munich, and Kumi Yokoyama for Japan's women's under-17 team.

The winner will be decided by the goal that polls the most number of votes on FIFA's website, www.fifa.com