It's only gameweek two of the Championship season and Dom Ballard has already made a serious case for goal of the season. The Bristol City striker's backheeled volley against Birmingham City on 22 August was the kind of finish that makes you rewind it three times and still not believe what you're seeing — the ball kissing the crossbar on its way in, just to show off. A legitimate Puskás contender. But the question it raises is a good one: how early in a season can a goal that wins the gong actually be scored?

Earlier Than You Think

Eleven years to the day before Ballard's effort, Marco Matias scored a similarly ridiculous goal for Sheffield Wednesday at Leeds United. That was awarded Championship goal of the season for 2015-16 in April 2016. Worth noting, though, that Matias's goal came in gameweek four — technically later in the season than Ballard's strike despite sharing the same calendar date of 22 August.

Go back further and the 2022-23 Championship season threw up a strong early contender: Ismaïla Sarr, now at Crystal Palace, scoring from the halfway line for Watford against West Brom — on the opening day, 8 August, just 12 minutes into the match. It is genuinely difficult to think of how you beat that for earliness. The goal won Sarr goal of the season for that campaign.

For comparison, David Beckham's famous halfway-line lob for Manchester United against Wimbledon — voted the best Premier League goal of the 1996-97 season — was also scored on the opening day, but 11 days later in the year than Sarr's effort, and came in the 87th minute rather than the 12th. [West Brom's current Championship campaign](/getohedz/football/west-brom-surge-back-to-floor-flemming-less-burnley-amid-transfer-speculation) gives a sense of how different the club's fortunes look now versus that Sarr ambush.

In Scotland, the 2017-18 SPFA goal of the season went to Kieran Tierney for Celtic against Kilmarnock, also scored on 8 August — but that was a League Cup match, three days after Celtic's first league fixture of the season. Then there is Celtic's Jota, who once won goal of the month for August despite his strike against Aberdeen actually being scored on 31 July 2022, in game one of the season.

The One That Doesn't Really Count (But We're Telling You Anyway)

Schalke's goal of the year in 2013 came on 27 July. Three immediate problems: it was a pre-season friendly; the scorer, Raúl, was no longer at the club; and the goal itself was a two-yard tap-in. Context, though, is everything — Raúl had agreed to play the first half for his new side Al-Sadd and the second half for Schalke in a match arranged as part of the transfer deal. The tap-in won the award because of a stunning assist from a teenage Julian Draxler. Right place, right time, extraordinary lead-up.

Our Take

Ballard's goal is genuinely elite — the kind of finish that belongs in a highlights reel years from now. Whether a gameweek-two goal can actually hold on and claim the award in April is another matter; there is a long season ahead. But Sarr's halfway-line opener in August 2022 shows it is absolutely possible for the earliest goals to also be the best. If Ballard's backheel survives the conversation until spring, it will have thoroughly deserved to win.