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Ballou Tabla is sitting in his apartment watching a movie, quietly enjoying a bit of solitude, blissfully unaware that his own exploits from two days earlier are lighting soccer social media aflame.

The 23-year-old Atlético Ottawa winger admits he isn’t much of a Twitter user. So when he hears that FIFA’s Twitter account has posted a video of his outlandish, overhead bicycle kick goal against Cavalry FC to its 15.5 million followers and is suggesting it as a Puskas Award nominee for the most beautiful goal of the year, his voice rises high in genuine surprise.

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“Oh, really?” he said, laughing slightly, and somewhat nervously. 

He shouldn’t be surprised, and nor should anyone who has watched a video of the goal. The original video posted on OneSoccer, rights holders of the nascent Canadian Premier League, is racing past over 200,000 views. BT Sport, which carries some CPL matches, posted a video which now has well over 600,000 views of his goal from outside the box.

In fact, few should be surprised if Tabla’s goal is indeed eventually named the 2022 Puskas Award winner.

GOLAZO 🌶

Hello soccer world. This is @CPLsoccer (not #MLS)

In this league, we have a saying#CANPL. BANGERS. ONLY.

Here's the latest, by Ballou Tabla of @AtletiOttawa

Cheers ❤️ pic.twitter.com/7gZXJCSZ1n

— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) September 24, 2022

But what went into one of the wildest goals of 2022?

In an interview with The Athletic, Tabla insisted that the goal was born out of “instinct.”

In the fourth minute of the match, Atlético’s midfielders recovered the ball in the middle of the park and began to quickly transition towards Cavalry FC’s goal in Spruce Meadows. Tabla stood well outside Cavalry’s box, his entire body turned towards the play developing to the right of him. He saw former Atlético Madrid academy product Miguel Acosta take his first touch near the touchline and then look up towards goal, somewhat ambitiously.

“When I saw Miguel Acosta looking at me, I knew he was going to send me a cross,” said Tabla.

At first glance, the cross appears behind the spot that would have given Tabla the chance to corral the ball forward towards the goal. But according to Tabla, the cross fell exactly where he wanted it to.

“Perfect,” he said of the cross. “I saw (Cavalry and former national team goalkeeper Marco Carducci) was a bit forward. So I was like, ‘Damn, let’s try it.’ I told myself, ‘Why not?’”

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Why not? Why not contort his body in a way most common folk would only dream of doing?

“My instinct was a bicycle kick. And I wasn’t sure the goal would go in. But definitely, my instinct was to just try it,” said Tabla.

Why not, as OneSoccer colour commentator and former Canadian international Jimmy Brennan suggested on the broadcast, pull the soaring cross down, control it and get shot off with a little more precision?

“Because I still had two players around me. So I thought, ‘If I control the ball, maybe I’ll lose it,’” Tabla said. “I had one defender in front of me and one behind me. In my head, I couldn’t do anything else.”

Tabla recalls thinking in the split second after he connected, that a goalkeeper of Carducci’s quality would be able to get a glove on the shot.

The word that lead commentator Adam Jenkins used to describe Tabla’s approach? “Audacity.”

“They probably see it like that,” said Tabla. “But me, I see it as football: you can see these kinds of goals everywhere. Maybe because it’s the first time in the CPL that there’s been a goal like this, they’re talking like that. But it’s football technique for football goals. I think it’s more instinct than audacity.”

Once the ball soared over Carducci and for dramatic effect, bounced off the crossbar and in, Tabla’s teammates swarmed him, all echoing a similar sentiment: How the hell did you do that?

But at halftime, he barely spoke with his teammates about the goal. Ottawa and Cavalry were neck and neck at the top of the CPL table, with the winner clinching the first playoff spot of the season.

“We had to finish the job,” he said.

And they did, with a 3-1 win that clinched Ottawa their first playoff appearance in club history but will likely be remembered for arguably the best goal in league history.

Tabla will often try shots like the one he pulled off in training sessions. Sometimes he’ll indeed find the back of the net, to the bemusement of teammates. But to pull it off in a game? He’s still surprised days later.

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“It’s difficult to explain this kind of goal because even me, I’m shocked about it,” said Tabla. “The best way to explain it is, if you do these kinds of things in training, in the game, you will have moments to try it,” said Tabla. “And you have to believe in yourself. When you see it after, it looks weird. But if you try it in training, it becomes normal.”

The first calls he got after the game were from his family, congratulating him on the goal. In training the following day, he couldn’t pass by a teammate without them mentioning that they’d seen video of his goal on a different outlet.

Tabla is adamant he’d always wanted to try shots like the one he scored in no small part because of his idol: legendary forward and fellow Ivory Coast forward Didier Drogba.

“Since I was younger, I grew up watching Drogba doing that during his time in Chelsea. I was inspired by that and wanted to try to score this kind of goal,” said Tabla, who was born in the Ivory Coast but has played internationally for Canada.

His dreams intertwined with reality in 2016. A then 17-year-old Tabla, playing for Montreal Impact’s reserve side, trained with Drogba in preseason before lining up alongside his hero in a preseason game during Drogba’s 18-month spell in MLS. 

The two formed a quick connection.

“I was a bit shy to get close to him because since I was young, I was dreaming of being around him,” said Tabla. “When I was in the Ivory Coast, I was watching Chelsea’s games in the Champions League. So when it happened, I was so happy. And he just brought me to his side and said, ‘Don’t worry, don’t be shy.’ He took to me like a big brother.”

“The most important thing that I learned from Didier wasn’t on the field. It was about the world of football. His experience was what I kept in my head. How to deal with pressure, how to deal with attention,” said Tabla.

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Attention came to Tabla in newfound ways. He graduated to Montreal’s first team in 2017, showing flashes of pace and attacking brilliance as just a teenager in a top flight league. His offensive flair was compelling enough that it appeared Tabla might be part of a group of young Canadian players moving on to top European sides at the same time. Seven months before Alphonso Davies signed for Bayern, Tabla signed for Barcelona’s B side. His initial buyout clause with Barca B was for 25 million euros.

Months after, though there were persistent reports that Tabla had refused call-ups to Canada in the hopes of playing for Ivory Coast, he finally did indeed make his debut for Canada.

“It was a different world of football,” said Tabla.

Perhaps too different. Tabla struggled to catch on with Barca B. After parts of two seasons there, with three goals in 30 appearances and a failed loan spell with Spanish second division side Albacete Balompie, personal family issues back home in Canada compelled him to return. Tabla returned to Montreal on loan, and ended up making just two appearances for Canada as the program was rebuilt under new head coach John Herdman.

With limited appearances between 2019 and 2021 in Montreal, it looked as if Tabla’s career was sputtering out.

That was until he received a call from Fernando Lopez, CEO of Atlético Ottawa. The club is owned by Atlético Madrid, and Ottawa employ the same style of soccer as their owners. After their first two seasons saw them finish in the CPL basement, they have since rocketed to the top of the table this season, currently sitting in first place with arguably the most defined style of play in the league. Tabla’s six goals in 26 matches this season have contributed to Atlético’s success.

“I fell in love with the project,” said Tabla.

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The CPL was created in part to provide a platform for young Canadian players in a way they haven’t had in a generation. It also exists to provide players like Tabla a second chance, and one that could perhaps revive their careers. And if his Puskas Award-worthy goal is any indication, Tabla appears to have grabbed this second chance tightly, and isn’t letting go.

What’s more, Tabla isn’t alone. This season in particular, the CPL has given birth to the kind of wildly entertaining goals that has allowed the league to adopt a new, albeit informal, motto: “CPL, bangers only.”

Take York United’s Chrisnovic N’sa’s left-footed strike from outside the box a day earlier:

GOAL 👑👑

Chrisnovic N'sa take a bow!😳@YorkUtdFC take the lead after N'sa scores a stunning goal to give York a 2-1 lead over @ValourFootball

What a game we have!! 👏

🔴 https://t.co/7JFAUhgjL6 pic.twitter.com/vIqTTUllfH

— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) September 24, 2022

Or CPL veteran Kyle Bekker’s Olimpico from July:

🚨Olimpico Alert 🚨

Kyle Bekker does the unthinkable and scores off of a corner kick to make it 4-0 for @ForgeFCHamilton 🔨 #CanPL l 📺: @onesoccer
pic.twitter.com/Q6Q5IJ8PP2

— Canadian Premier League (@CPLsoccer) July 19, 2022

Or, finally, Sean Rea’s run and chip from May:

GOAL🎖

THIS IS THE GOAL OF THE SEASON FROM SEAN REA!!

Again nothing but bangers in the CPL. @ValourFootball take a 1-0 lead over @PacificFCCPL in style!#CanPL | 🔴 https://t.co/7JFAUhgjL6 pic.twitter.com/72g30gXnuO

— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) May 28, 2022

Questionable defending is certainly at play in all of these, but Tabla still believes there’s more where his goal came from in the CPL.

“Before arriving in the CPL, I saw some great goals from last year and I was shocked,” he said. “For a new competition, it’s amazing seeing those kinds of goals. I give it one or two years and this league will be a great league. These kinds of goals, you don’t see everywhere.”

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When he re-watches his goal back again, he again shakes his head, before smiling.

“I’ll remember this for the rest of my life,” said Tabla.

(Photo courtesy Atlético Ottawa)

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