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FIFA and Hyundai announced the introduction of the award for the best young player at the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™. The Hyundai Best Young Player Award will recognise the outstanding achievements and courage of young players in next year’s tournament.

It is a prize that is especially important to FIFA Secretary General Jérôme Valcke: “This special FIFA award focuses on the future. To shine as the best young player on the pitch alongside the world’s elite takes skill, creativity and strength but also an individual and refreshing style of play. Thanks to the support of Hyundai, this honour continues to be an important part of the FIFA World Cup and a much-coveted accolade for all the promising youngsters in the tournament to vie for.”

The FIFA World Cup is known as the creative hotbed for football superstars. The youngest player to win the FIFA World Cup was Pelé at the age of 17 in Sweden in 1958. He scored in the final and would without doubt have won the Hyundai Best Young Player Award had the prize existed at the time.

As world football’s governing body, FIFA is committed to improving the standard of world tournaments and to promoting football among young people. With this in mind, the Hyundai Best Young Player Award will reward the outstanding performances of young players in the world’s most recognised football event. This prize is a valuable promotional tool for football around the globe and marks an important moment for the young players presented with the award.

The winner of the award will be selected by the Technical Study Group (TSG), a FIFA-appointed group of top football coaches and analysts headed by Jean-Paul Brigger, a former Swiss international. Selection criteria are age, exceptional skills, a youthful and refreshing playing style, creativity and inspiration, tactical maturity and efficiency. But a player needs more than this to be selected as the best young player of the tournament, says Jean-Paul Brigger: “To recognise the best young player we are also looking for someone who is entertaining with his play and is a role model for other young players. Most important for us is also a positive attitude and fair play throughout the whole tournament.”

On FIFA.com fans will find an interactive Hyundai Best Young Player Award section where they can give their prediction and leave comments on “Have your say”. There will also be pictures and stories on each player shortlisted for the award. The section will be launched together with the media launch of the award on 2 December before the Final Draw for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in Cape Town.

Mrs Erzsébet Puskás, the widow of legendary Hungarian footballer Ferenc Puskás, who passed away in November 2006, and FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter announced the introduction of the FIFA Puskás Award during a press conference held at the Ferenc Puskás Football Academy in Felcsút (Hungary) on Tuesday, 20 October.

The FIFA Puskás Award, created in honour and in memory of Ferenc Puskás, the captain and star of the Hungarian national team during the 1950s, will be inaugurated in December during the 2009 FIFA World Player Gala and presented to the player – man or woman – who has scored the “most beautiful goal” during the past year.

“It is important to preserve the memory of those footballing greats who have left their mark on our history. Ferenc Puskás was not only a player with immense talent who won many honours, but also a remarkable man. FIFA is therefore delighted to pay tribute to him by dedicating this award to his memory,” said the FIFA President during the inauguration ceremony.

Mrs Puskás added: “It is truly an indescribable honour that FIFA, which in the area of our youth is already one of the world’s most prestigious organisations, names such an important award after Ferenc Puskás. I thank you in the name of ‘Öcsi’ and on behalf of all those who admired Ferenc Puskás’ ability and personality and who appreciated and respected my husband around the whole world. In particular I would like to welcome here our old friend, Mr Sepp Blatter, who has done so much to create this award. I am very grateful to the Puskás Academy and the Hungarian Football Association, which assisted in the creation of the Puskás Award. I trust that the men and women who will win the FIFA Puskás Award in the future will be appreciative and that football supporters will also be proud of them.”

The winner of the FIFA Puskás Award will be selected via FIFA.com in the last two weeks of November. Videos of the ten most beautiful goals of the year, as chosen by FIFA’s Football Committee, will be posted on the website and the final decision on the winner will be the result of an online poll.

The name of the player who has scored the “most beautiful goal of the year” will be announced at the FIFA World Player Gala on 21 December 2009. The player in question will receive the FIFA Puskás Award trophy engraved with his or her name.

The criteria for selecting the goal of the year are as follows:

1. It should be a beautiful goal (subjective – the spread of goals should include long-range shots, team goals, overhead kicks, etc.).

2. The importance of the match should be taken into account (objective – limited to “A” international teams, confederation championships and national top-division club matches: the more important the goal, the better).

3. The goal should not be the result of luck or mistakes by the other team.

4. The goal should support fair play, i.e. the player should not have behaved badly in the game or have been charged with doping, for example.

5. Only goals scored from July 2008 to July 2009 will be considered.