Allan Saint-Maximin v Miguel Almiron: Newcastle United ‘goal of the season’ has been decided

The Paraguayan picked up Newcastle’s goal of the season award for the 2021-22 campaign for his stunning effort against Crystal Palace. The tight-angled strike after racing onto Bruno Guimaraes’ long-ball forward was also credited with the Premier League’s goal of the month award for April.

And at Craven Cottage, Guimaraes and Almiron combined again for another spectacular effort. The angled, outside-of-the-foot volley arguably even better than his goal against Palace.

It’s all subjective of course, but Newcastle are making something of a habit of scoring high-quality goals under head coach Eddie Howe.

Following Almiron’s goal of the month win in April, Allan Saint-Maximin picked up the award for August for his last minute volley at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The French winger beat team-mates Kieran Trippier and Fabian Schar to the award as Newcastle were the only club to have three nominees.

It may only be early October, but it would take some strike to stop Almiron picking up his second goal of the month in quick succession.

But the goal has prompted some debate amongst supporters and journalists.

During the long journey home from Fulham, me and my National World colleagues all had differing opinions on whether Almiron’s strike was the best we’ve seen from a Newcastle player in 2022.

Opinions were divided between the goal at Craven Cottage and Saint-Maximin’s stunning edge-of-the-box volley at Wolves five weeks earlier.

The sheer confidence, execution and timing of the Frenchman’s goal certainly worked in his favour.

However, Almiron’s goal had a shock-factor to it, no one expected him to find the net from the position he was in. Even BBC Newcastle co-commentator John Anderson questioned if the player meant it.

And that is exactly what makes the strike so brilliant – it’s a once in a season goal. You can watch Almiron’s goal back countless times and still wonder how he manages to find the top left corner from the position he’s in.

As for Saint-Maximin’s, it’s clear on first viewing exactly what he does – there's an irresistible swagger to it – which some will prefer.

There is no right or wrong answer, it’s great to be discussing something positive surrounding Newcastle.

But personally, Almiron’s effort would take some beating not to be named as Newcastle’s goal of the season. It’s unique and was set up brilliantly by Guimaraes while Saint-Maximin’s strike was ultimately an opportunistic one that was brilliantly executed following a botched clearance from a Wolves player.

Some will disagree and prefer Saint-Maximin’s, others may feel Almiron’s goal against Palace is still the best of the three.

To help settle the debate, we've used the tried and tested method to determine which goal was ‘the best’ – a Twitter poll.

The poll reflected the dividing of opinion between the goals with 1,849 users voting in total. Almiron’s strike v Palace came third with 22-per-cent of the vote while Saint-Maximin’s was the runner up with 34-per-cent while Almiron’s strike at Fulham, still fresh in people’s minds, won with 44-per-cent of the vote.

So that’s it settled, at least until the next Newcastle ‘screamer’ hits the back of the net!