João Cancelo’s curling shot off the bar wins Goal of the Month

João Cancelo struck a curling right-footed shot from outside the box that hit the crossbar and flew into the top corner at Spotify Camp Nou.

That strike has been crowned La Liga Goal of the Month for September. FC Barcelona’s social media announcement of the award collected 27,717 likes.

It opened the scoring in the eighth minute of a 7-2 win over Real Racing Club de Santander on 16 September 2026. Goalkeeper Julen Agirrezabala dived but could not keep it out. Cancelo was making his first start of the season after rejoining Barcelona permanently that summer following a loan from Al Hilal.

The prize was his second Goal of the Month. He first won it in September 2023 for a goal away at Real Betis. This time his effort was chosen ahead of strikes by Osasuna’s Ante Budimir and Alaves’s Lucas Boye. He stayed on until the 78th minute and left to an ovation from the Camp Nou crowd.

After the match Cancelo said: “It was the best goal of my career. And it was even more special because it came at this club. Since the start of last season, I have wanted to come here. I haven't had that many opportunities to start, but I have always trained well to help the team when called upon. I needed this goal to gain more confidence. I achieved that. You need a little bit of luck, but the important thing is that the team won.”