FIFA World Cup awards

• There are currently five post-tournament awards from the FIFA Technical Study Group:[1][2]
  • the Golden Ball (currently commercially termed "adidas Golden Ball") for best player, first awarded in 1982; Lionel Messi is the only player in history to win the Golden Ball twice.
  • the Golden Boot (currently commercially termed "adidas Golden Boot", formerly known as the "adidas Golden Shoe" from 1982 to 2006) for top goalscorer, first awarded in 1982;
  • the Golden Glove (currently commercially termed "adidas Golden Glove", formerly known as the "Lev Yashin Award" from 1994 to 2006) for best goalkeeper, first awarded in 1994;
  • the FIFA Young Player Award (formerly known as the "Best Young Player Award" from 2006 to 2010) for best player under 21 years of age at the start of the calendar year, first awarded in 2006;
  • the FIFA Fair Play Trophy for the team that advanced to the second round with the best record of fair play, first awarded in 1970.
• There is currently one award voted on by fans during the tournament:
  • the Player of the Match (currently commercially termed "Budweiser Player of the Match", formerly known as the "Man of the Match" from 2002 to 2018) for outstanding performance during each match of the tournament, first awarded in 2002.
• There are currently two awards voted on by fans after the conclusion of the tournament:
  • the Goal of the Tournament, (currently commercially termed "Hyundai Goal of the Tournament") for the fans' best goal scored during the tournament, first awarded in 2006;
  • the Most Entertaining Team for the team that has entertained the public the most, during the World Cup final tournament, as determined by a poll of the general public.
• One other award was given between 1994 and 2006:[3]
  • an All-Star Team comprising the best players of the tournament chosen by the FIFA Technical Study Group. From 2010 onwards, all Dream Teams or Statistical Teams are unofficial, as reported by FIFA itself.

The Golden Ball award is presented to the best player at each FIFA World Cup finals, with a shortlist drawn up by the FIFA technical committee (Technical Study Group) and the winner voted for by representatives of the media.[4] Those who finish as runners-up in the vote receive the Silver Ball and Bronze Ball awards as the second and third most outstanding players in the tournament respectively. The current award was introduced in the 1982 FIFA World Cup, sponsored by Adidas and France Football.[5] Oliver Kahn is to date the only goalkeeper to have won the award, which he did in the FIFA World Cup 2002. At the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Lionel Messi became the first player to win two Golden Balls.[6]

Official winners

Golden Ball[7]

World Cup	Golden Ball	Silver Ball	Bronze Ball
1982 Spain	Paolo Rossi	Falcão	Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
1986 Mexico	Diego Maradona	Harald Schumacher	Preben Elkjær
1990 Italy	Salvatore Schillaci	Lothar Matthäus	Diego Maradona
1994 United States	Romário	Roberto Baggio	Hristo Stoichkov
1998 France	Ronaldo	Davor Šuker	Lilian Thuram
2002 South Korea/Japan	Oliver Kahn	Ronaldo	Hong Myung-bo
2006 Germany	Zinedine Zidane	Fabio Cannavaro	Andrea Pirlo
2010 South Africa	Diego Forlán	Wesley Sneijder	David Villa
2014 Brazil	Lionel Messi	Thomas Müller	Arjen Robben
2018 Russia	Luka Modrić	Eden Hazard	Antoine Griezmann
2022 Qatar	Lionel Messi	Kylian Mbappé	Luka Modrić

Trophies by country

Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Argentina	3	0	1	4
Italy	2	2	1	5
Brazil	2	2	0	4
West Germany/Germany	1	3	1	5
France	1	1	2	4
Croatia	1	1	1	3
Uruguay	1	0	0	1
Netherlands	0	1	1	2
Belgium	0	1	0	1
Bulgaria	0	0	1	1
Denmark	0	0	1	1
South Korea	0	0	1	1
Spain	0	0	1	1

Unofficial winner

The following players were recognised as best players by FIFA website. Also, FIFA only recognizes the 1978 Golden Ball award prior to 1982. FIFA does not recognize Golden Ball awards from 1930 to 1974.

Unofficial Best Player

World Cup	Winner	Runner-up	Third place
1978 Argentina	Mario Kempes[8]	Paolo Rossi[9]	Dirceu[9]

Media's selections

Authoritative football historian and statistician Ejikeme Ikwunze, popularly called "Mr. Football", published a list of the best players in his book World Cup (1930-2010): A Statistical Summary,[10] and it gained the most attention among experts' selections about the best players until 1978. This work is part of the official FIFA library,[11] and received public recognition from his former presidents Joao Havelange and Joseph Blatter. A considerable number of other media agreed with him.[12][13][14][15]

World Cup (1930-2010): A Statistical Summary's Best Player[10]

World Cup	First place	Second place	Third place
1930 Uruguay	José Nasazzi[16]	Guillermo Stábile	José Leandro Andrade
1934 Italy	Giuseppe Meazza	Matthias Sindelar	Oldrich Nejedly
1938 France	Leônidas[17]	Silvio Piola	György Sárosi
1950 Brazil	Zizinho[18]	Juan Alberto Schiaffino	did not select
1954 Switzerland	Ferenc Puskas	Sandor Kocsis	Fritz Walter
1958 Sweden	Didi[19][20]	Pelé	Just Fontaine
1962 Chile	Garrincha[21]	Josef Masopust	Leonel Sánchez
1966 England	Bobby Charlton	Bobby Moore	did not select
1970 México	Pelé[22]	Gérson	Gerd Müller
1974 West Germany	Johan Cruyff	Franz Beckenbauer	Kazimierz Deyna
1978 Argentina[23]	Mario Kempes	Paolo Rossi	did not select

On 2 August 1950, Dr. Friedebert Becker, the editor-in-chief of Kicker (then Sport-Magazin), chose his best players of the tournament.[24]

France Football, the sponsor of Golden Ball and Ballon d'Or, selected the best player of the 1966 FIFA World Cup at that time with L'Équipe, and Bobby Charlton became the winner.[25]

After the 1978 World Cup Argentinian magazine El Gráfico held a survey for the best player of the tournament. This was different from the unofficial Golden Ball which is recognised by FIFA.[26]

Guerin Sportivo chose their top 10 player for the 1990 tournament in Italy.[27]

In 1998 the Argentinian newspaper Clarín provided a brief description of each star player dating back to 1930. Some are controversial decisions as is the case with retrospective awards. The 1998 winner was awarded after the tournament ended.[28]

World Cup	Media	First place	Second place	Third place
1930 Uruguay	Clarín	José Nasazzi
	ESPN Deportes[29]	José Nasazzi
1934 Italy	Clarín	Giuseppe Meazza
	ESPN Deportes[30]	Raimundo Orsi
1938 France	Clarín	Leônidas
	ESPN Deportes[31]	Giuseppe Meazza
1950 Brazil	Sport-Magazin	Zizinho	Alcides Ghiggia	Ademir
	Clarín	Obdulio Varela
	ESPN Deportes[32]	Obdulio Varela
1954 Switzerland	Clarín	Ferenc Puskás
	ESPN Deportes[33]	Ferenc Puskás
1958 Sweden	Clarín	Pelé
	ESPN Deportes[34]	Pelé
1962 Chile	Clarín	Garrincha
	ESPN Deportes[35]	Garrincha
1966 England	France FootballL'Équipe	Bobby Charlton	Franz Beckenbauer	Eusébio
	Sofascore[36]	Eusébio	Helmut Haller	Ferenc Bene
	Clarín	Franz Beckenbauer
	ESPN Deportes[37]	Bobby Charlton
1970 Mexico	Sofascore[38]	Gerd Müller	Pelé	Rivellino
	Clarín	Pelé
	ESPN Deportes[39]	Pelé
1974 West Germany	Sofascore[40]	Johan Cruyff	Kazimierz Deyna	Ronnie Hellström
	Clarín	Johan Cruyff
	ESPN Deportes[41]	Johan Cruyff
1978 Argentina	El Gráfico	Mario Kempes	Paolo Rossi	Ubaldo Fillol
	Sofascore[42]	Mario Kempes	Daniel Passarella	Ramón Quiroga
	Clarín	Mario Kempes
	ESPN Deportes[43]	Mario Kempes
1982 Spain	FourFourTwo[44]	Paolo Rossi	Bruno Conti	Falcão
	Guerin Sportivo[45]	Paolo Rossi	Claudio Gentile	Júnior
	Sofascore[46]	Thomas N'Kono	Zbigniew Boniek	Ferenc Mészáros
	Clarín	Paolo Rossi
	ESPN Deportes[47]	Sócrates
	Pelé[48]	Bruno Conti
1986 Mexico	FourFourTwo[49]	Diego Maradona	Preben Elkjær	Gary Lineker
	Sofascore[50]	Diego Maradona	Igor Belanov	Careca
	Clarín	Diego Maradona
	ESPN Deportes[51]	Diego Maradona
1990 Italy	FourFourTwo[52]	Lothar Matthäus	Salvatore Schillaci	Diego Maradona
	Guerin Sportivo	Salvatore Schillaci	Andreas Brehme	Paul Gascoigne
	Clarín	Diego Maradona
	ESPN Deportes[53]	Lothar Matthäus
1994 United States	FourFourTwo[54]	Romário	Hristo Stoichkov	Gheorghe Hagi
	Clarín	Romário
	ESPN Deportes[55]	Romário
1998 France	FourFourTwo[56]	Lilian Thuram	Ronaldo	Davor Šuker
	Clarín	Zinedine Zidane
	ESPN Deportes[57]	Zinedine Zidane
2002 South Korea/Japan	FourFourTwo[58]	Ronaldo	Oliver Kahn	Hasan Şaş
	ESPN Deportes[59]	Ronaldo
2006 Germany	FourFourTwo[60]	Andrea Pirlo	Zinedine Zidane	Fabio Cannavaro
	ESPN Deportes[61]	Zinedine Zidane
2010 South Africa	FourFourTwo[62]	Xavi	Diego Forlán	Andrés Iniesta
	Bleacher Report[63]	Wesley Sneijder	David Villa	Diego Forlán
	ESPN Deportes[64]	Diego Forlán
2014 Brazil	FourFourTwo[65]	James Rodríguez	Toni Kroos	Javier Mascherano
	The Guardian[66]	James Rodríguez	Thomas Müller	Arjen Robben
	Bleacher Report[67]	Manuel Neuer	Arjen Robben	James Rodríguez
2018 Russia	Irish Independent[68]	Luka Modrić	Kylian Mbappé	N'Golo Kanté
	Sportskeeda[69]	Luka Modrić	Kylian Mbappé	Eden Hazard
	Forbes[70]	Luka Modrić
2022 Qatar	FourFourTwo[71]	Lionel Messi	Kylian Mbappé	Antoine Griezmann
	Sports Illustrated[72]	Kylian Mbappé	Lionel Messi	Antoine Griezmann
	Bleacher Report[73]	Lionel Messi	Kylian Mbappé	Karim Benzema

The Golden Boot or Golden Shoe award goes to the top goalscorer of the FIFA World Cup. While every World Cup had a ranking of the goalscorers, the first time an award was given was in 1982,[7] under the name Golden Shoe.[5] It was rechristened Golden Boot in 2010.[74] FIFA sometimes lists the top goalscorers of previous Cups among the Golden Boot winners.[75]

If there is more than one player with the same number of goals, since 1994 the tie-breaker goes to the player with more assists. If there is still more than one player, the tie (since 2006) is decided by minutes played in the tournament, with the player playing fewest minutes ranked first. A Silver Boot and a Bronze Boot are also awarded for the second and third-highest goalscorers respectively.

Top Goalscorer[76][77]
World Cup	Top goalscorer	Goals	Runners-up	Goals	Third place	Goals
1930 Uruguay	Guillermo Stábile	8	Pedro Cea	5	Bert Patenaude	4
1934 Italy	Oldřich Nejedlý	5[lower-alpha 1]	Edmund Conen Angelo Schiavio	4	None	—
1938 France	Leônidas	7[lower-alpha 2]	György Sárosi Gyula Zsengellér Silvio Piola	5	None	—
1950 Brazil	Ademir	9[lower-alpha 3]	Óscar Míguez	5	Alcides Ghiggia Chico Estanislau Basora Telmo Zarra	4
1954 Switzerland	Sándor Kocsis	11	Josef Hügi Max Morlock Erich Probst	6	None	—
1958 Sweden	Just Fontaine	13	Pelé Helmut Rahn	6	None	—
1962 Chile	Flórián Albert Valentin Ivanov Garrincha Vavá Dražan Jerković Leonel Sánchez	4	None	—	None	—
1966 England	Eusébio	9	Helmut Haller	6	Franz Beckenbauer Ferenc Bene Geoff Hurst Valeriy Porkujan	4
1970 Mexico	Gerd Müller	10	Jairzinho	7	Teófilo Cubillas	5
1974 West Germany	Grzegorz Lato	7	Johan Neeskens Andrzej Szarmach	5	None	—
1978 Argentina[81]	Mario Kempes	6	Teófilo Cubillas	5	Rob Rensenbrink	5
Golden Shoe[75]
World Cup	Golden Shoe	Goals	Silver Shoe	Goals	Bronze Shoe	Goals
1982 Spain	Paolo Rossi	6	Karl-Heinz Rummenigge	5	Zico	4
1986 Mexico	Gary Lineker	6	Emilio Butragueño Careca Diego Maradona	5	None[82]
1990 Italy	Salvatore Schillaci	6	Tomáš Skuhravý	5	Gary Lineker Roger Milla	4
1994 United States	Oleg Salenko[lower-alpha 4] Hristo Stoichkov[lower-alpha 5]	6	None	—	Kennet Andersson Romário	5[lower-alpha 6]
1998 France[85]	Davor Šuker	6	Gabriel Batistuta Christian Vieri	5	None[lower-alpha 7]
2002 South Korea/Japan[86]	Ronaldo	8[lower-alpha 8]	Miroslav Klose Rivaldo	5
2006 Germany[88]	Miroslav Klose	5	Hernán Crespo	3[lower-alpha 9]	Ronaldo	3[lower-alpha 9]
Golden Boot[75]
World Cup	Golden Boot	Goals	Silver Boot	Goals	Bronze Boot	Goals
2010 South Africa	Thomas Müller	5[lower-alpha 10]	David Villa	5[lower-alpha 10]	Wesley Sneijder	5[lower-alpha 10]
2014 Brazil	James Rodríguez	6	Thomas Müller	5	Neymar	4[lower-alpha 11]
2018 Russia	Harry Kane	6	Antoine Griezmann	4[lower-alpha 12]	Romelu Lukaku	4[lower-alpha 12]
2022 Qatar	Kylian Mbappé	8	Lionel Messi	7	Olivier Giroud	4[lower-alpha 13]
Notes
FIFA initially credited Nejedlý with only four goals, which would make him joint top scorer with Angelo Schiavio of Italy and Edmund Conen of Germany. However, FIFA changed it to five goals in November 2006, making Nejedlý the outright top scorer.[78] FIFA initially credited Leônidas with eight goals. However, in November 2006, FIFA confirmed that in the quarter-final tie against Czechoslovakia, he had scored once, not twice as FIFA had originally recorded, meaning he had scored only seven goals in total.[78] There was controversy regarding the number of goals Brazilian Ademir had scored in 1950, as a result of incomplete data concerning the Final Round game Brazil vs. Spain (6–1). The 5–0 goal had been credited to Jair, but is now credited to Ademir.[79][80] Salenko is the only player to win the award playing for a team that were eliminated in the group stage. His six goals are the only international goals he ever scored. Despite the assist tiebreaker, Salenko and Stoichkov remained tied with six goals and one assist each, and both received the Golden Shoe.[83] Romário and Andersson surpassed the other two players with five goals (Jürgen Klinsmann and Roberto Baggio) by having three assists each.[83][84] Both runners-up had the same number of assists, and each received the Silver Shoe. During the tournament, after the group stage match against Costa Rica, Ronaldo logged a protest against the crediting of a goal as an own goal, and FIFA granted him the change.[87] Eight players had scored three goals. Ronaldo, Crespo and Zinedine Zidane stood out for having one assist, and then the two recipients were determined by less playtime (308 minutes for Crespo, 411 for Ronaldo, 559 for Zidane).[89] Müller, Villa, Sneijder and Diego Forlán tied with five goals. Müller won by virtue of having more assists (three) than the rest (each had one). Villa won the Silver Boot due to playing fewer minutes than Sneijder, and Sneijder won the Bronze Boot due to having played fewer minutes than Forlán.[90] Neymar, Lionel Messi and Robin van Persie all had four goals in the tournament. Neymar received the Bronze Boot for playing fewer minutes than his competitors (480; Messi played 693 minutes, and Van Persie, 548).[91] Griezmann, Lukaku, Denis Cheryshev, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappé tied with four goals. In the assists tiebreaker, Griezmann won the Silver Boot by virtue of having two, while Lukaku got the Bronze Boot as he had one. The rest had zero.[92] Giroud and Julián Álvarez tied with four goals. Giroud won the Bronze Boot due to playing fewer minutes than Álvarez.[93]

The Golden Glove award is awarded to the best goalkeeper of the tournament. The award was introduced with the name "Lev Yashin Award" in 1994, in honor of the late Soviet goalkeeper.[7] It was rechristened "Golden Glove" in 2010. The FIFA Technical Study Group recognises the top goalkeeper of the tournament based on the player's performance throughout the final competition. Although goalkeepers have this specific award for their position, they are still eligible for the Golden Ball as well, as when Oliver Kahn was awarded in 2002.[94]

Official Award

Lev Yashin Award
World Cup	Lev Yashin Award	Clean sheets
1994 United States	Michel Preud'homme	2
1998 France	Fabien Barthez	5
2002 South Korea/Japan	Oliver Kahn	5
2006 Germany	Gianluigi Buffon	5
Golden Glove
World Cup	Golden Glove	Clean sheets
2010 South Africa	Iker Casillas	5
2014 Brazil	Manuel Neuer	4
2018 Russia	Thibaut Courtois	3
2022 Qatar	Emiliano Martínez	3

The FIFA Young Player Award ("Best Young Player Award" 2006–2010) was awarded for the first time at the 2006 World Cup in Germany and given to Germany's Lukas Podolski.[95] The award is given to the best player in the tournament who is at most 21 years old. For the 2022 World Cup, this meant that the player had to have been born on or after 1 January 2001.

In 2006,[96] the election took place on FIFA's official World Cup website with the help of The FIFA Technical Study Group.[97]

FIFA organised a survey on the Internet for users to choose the "Best Young Player" of the World Cup, between 1958 and 2002, named the best young player of each tournament.[98] With 61% of the overall vote, the winner was Pelé, who finished ahead of the Peruvian Teófilo Cubillas, the best young player at Mexico 1970, and England's Michael Owen, who reached similar heights at France 98.[99][100]

The winner of the award has only been part of the winning country three times. Pelé in 1958, Kylian Mbappé in 2018, and Enzo Fernández in 2022.

World Cup	FIFA Young Player	Age
1958 Sweden	Pelé	17
1962 Chile	Flórián Albert	20
1966 England	Franz Beckenbauer	20
1970 Mexico	Teófilo Cubillas	21
1974 West Germany	Władysław Żmuda	20
1978 Argentina	Antonio Cabrini	20
1982 Spain	Manuel Amoros	21
1986 Mexico	Enzo Scifo	20
1990 Italy	Robert Prosinečki	21
1994 United States	Marc Overmars	20
1998 France	Michael Owen	18
2002 South Korea/Japan	Landon Donovan	20
2006 Germany	Lukas Podolski[95]	21
2010 South Africa	Thomas Müller[101]	20
2014 Brazil	Paul Pogba[102]	21
2018 Russia	Kylian Mbappé[103]	19
2022 Qatar	Enzo Fernández	21

The FIFA Fair Play Trophy is given to the team with the best record of fair play during the World Cup final tournament since 1970. Only teams that qualified for the second round are considered. The winners of this award earn the FIFA Fair Play Trophy, a diploma, a fair play medal for each player and official, and $50,000 worth of football equipment to be used for youth development.[104]

The appearance of the award was originally a certificate. From 1982 to 1990, it was a golden trophy based on Sport Billy, a football-playing cartoon character from 1982 who became an icon for FIFA Fair play.[105][106] Ever since 1994, it is simply a trophy with an elegant footballer figure.[107] Peru was the first nation to win the award after receiving no yellow or red cards in the 1970 FIFA World Cup held in Mexico.[108]

Peru's FIFA Fair Play trophy award. Peru won the award after receiving no yellow or red cards in the tournament.

World Cup	FIFA Fair Play Trophy Winners
1970 Mexico	Peru
1974 West Germany	West Germany
1978 Argentina	Argentina
1982 Spain	Brazil
1986 Mexico	Brazil
1990 Italy	England
1994 United States	Brazil
1998 France	England  France
2002 South Korea/Japan	Belgium
2006 Germany	Brazil  Spain
2010 South Africa	Spain
2014 Brazil	Colombia
2018 Russia	Spain
2022 Qatar	England

The Player of the Match (POTM) award picks the outstanding player in every match of the tournament. The award was introduced with the name "Man of the Match" in 2002. It was rechristened "Player of the Match" in 2022.

While the inaugural two editions were chosen by the technical group,[109][110] since 2010, Player of the Match is picked by an online poll on FIFA's website.[111][112][113]

World Cup	Player(s) with most POTM wins	Wins
2002 South Korea/Japan	Rivaldo	3
2006 Germany	Andrea Pirlo	3
2010 South Africa	Wesley Sneijder	4
2014 Brazil	Lionel Messi	4
2018 Russia	Antoine Griezmann Eden Hazard Harry Kane Luka Modrić	3
2022 Qatar	Lionel Messi	5

Total awards
As of 18 December 2022

Rank	Player	Wins	World Cup(s) with awards
1	Lionel Messi	11	2010, 2014, 2018, 2022
2	Cristiano Ronaldo	7	2010, 2014, 2018, 2022
3	Arjen Robben	6	2006, 2010, 2014
4	Kylian Mbappé	5	2018, 2022
	Luka Modrić		2018, 2022
	Luis Suárez		2010, 2014, 2018
7	Antoine Griezmann	4	2018, 2022
	Eden Hazard		2014, 2018
	Keisuke Honda		2010, 2014
	Harry Kane		2018, 2022
	Miroslav Klose		2002, 2006
	Thomas Müller		2010, 2014
	Neymar		2014, 2018, 2022
	Park Ji-sung		2002, 2006, 2010
	James Rodríguez		2014, 2018
	Wesley Sneijder		2010

By country
As of 18 December 2022

Rank	Country	Wins	Players
1	Brazil	25	16
2	Germany	23	13
3	France	22	12
4	Argentina	21	9
5	Spain	18	12
6	England	17	14
7	Netherlands	16	7
8	Mexico	14	11
	Portugal		8
10	United States	13	8
	Croatia		8

The Most Entertaining Team award is a subjectively awarded prize for the team that had done the most to entertain the public with a positive approach to the game, organised through public participation in a poll[7] starting in 1994.[74]

World Cup	Most Entertaining Team Award
1994 United States	Brazil[88]
1998 France	France[88]
2002 South Korea/Japan	South Korea[114]
2006 Germany	Portugal[115]