FIFA World Cup awards

There are currently five post-tournament awards, and one given during the tournament:[1]

• the Golden Ball (currently commercially termed "adidas Golden Ball") for best player, first awarded in 1982;
• the Golden Boot (currently commercially termed "adidas Golden Boot", previously known as the "adidas Golden Shoe" from 1982 to 2006) for top goal scorer, first awarded in 1982;
• the Golden Glove Award (currently commercially termed "adidas Golden Glove"; previously known as the "Lev Yashin Award" from 1994 to 2006) for best goalkeeper, first awarded in 1994;
• the Best Young Player (currently commercially termed as "Hyundai Best Young Player") award 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;
• the Man of the Match Award (currently commercially termed as "Budweiser Man of the Match") for outstanding performance during each game of the tournament, first awarded in 2002.

Two other awards were given between 1994 and 2006:[2]

• The Most Entertaining Team award 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;
• An All-Star Team comprising the best players of the tournament chosen by the technical study group.

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 and the winner voted for by representatives of the media. 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.[3]

Official award

Golden Ball[4]

World Cup	Golden Ball	Silver Ball	Bronze Ball
1982 Spain	Paolo Rossi	Falcão	Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
1986 Mexico	Diego Maradona	Harald Schumacher	Preben Elkjær Larsen
1990 Italy	Salvatore Schillaci	Lothar Matthäus	Diego Maradona
1994 United States	Romario	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

Trophies by country

Nation	G	S	B	Total
Italy	2	2	1	5
Brazil	2	2	0	4
Argentina	2	0	1	3
West Germany/Germany	1	3	1	5
Croatia	1	1	0	2
France	1	0	2	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 award

There was officially no Golden, Silver, and Bronze Ball before 1982, but some websites put up the list of winners from 1930 edition to 1978 edition.[5][6] Among them, FIFA introduced Johan Cruyff and Mario Kempes as Golden Ball winners in its website.[7][8] However, this list lacks reliable sources to be recognized as award.

In July 1978, a penal of 23 international experts which consisted of critics, coaches, and former players each chose the five best players of 1978 tournament.[9]

Unofficial Best Players

World Cup	Winner	Runner-up	Third place
1978 Argentina	Mario Kempes	Paolo Rossi	Hans Krankl Dirceu

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,[4] under the name Golden Shoe.[3] It was rechristened Golden Boot in 2010.[10] FIFA sometimes lists the top goalscorers of previous Cups among the Golden Boot winners.[11]

If there is more than one player with the same number of goals, since 1994 the tie-breaker goes to the player with fewer goals scored from penalties, then next tie breaker goes to the person with more assists - with the FIFA Technical Study Group deciding whether an assist is to be counted as such.[12][13] If there is still more than one player, the tie-breaker since 2006 goes to the player who has played the least amount of time, which translates to a higher goal average.[14]

Top Goalscorer[15][16]
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
1950 Brazil	Ademir	8[lower-alpha 3]	Óscar Míguez		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
1962 Chile	Flórián Albert Valentin Ivanov Garrincha Vavá Dražan Jerković Leonel Sánchez	4	None	—
1966 England	Eusébio	9	Helmut Haller	6	Valeriy Porkujan Geoff Hurst Ferenc Bene Franz Beckenbauer	4
1970 Mexico	Gerd Müller	10	Jairzinho	7	Teófilo Cubillas	5
1974 West Germany	Grzegorz Lato	7	Andrzej Szarmach Johan Neeskens	5	None
1978 Argentina[20]	Mario Kempes	6	Teófilo Cubillas		Rob Rensenbrink	5
Golden Shoe[11]
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[21]
1990 Italy	Salvatore Schillaci	6	Tomáš Skuhravý	5	Roger Milla Gary Lineker	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[23]	Davor Šuker	6	Gabriel Batistuta Christian Vieri	5	None[lower-alpha 7]
2002 South Korea/Japan[24]	Ronaldo	8[lower-alpha 8][lower-alpha 9]	Miroslav Klose Rivaldo	5
2006 Germany[26]	Miroslav Klose	5	Hernán Crespo	3[lower-alpha 10]	Ronaldo	3[lower-alpha 10]
Golden Boot[11]
World Cup	Golden Boot	Goals	Silver Boot	Goals	Bronze Boot	Goals
2010 South Africa	Thomas Müller	5[lower-alpha 11]	David Villa	5[lower-alpha 11]	Wesley Sneijder	5[lower-alpha 11]
2014 Brazil	James Rodríguez	6	Thomas Müller	5	Neymar	4[lower-alpha 12]
2018 Russia	Harry Kane	6	Antoine Griezmann	4[lower-alpha 13]	Romelu Lukaku	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.[17] 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.[17] 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.[18][19] Salenko is the only player to win the award playing for a team that were eliminated in the group stages. His six goals are the only international goals he ever scored. Despite the assist tiebreaker, Salenko and Stoichkov remained tied with 6 goals and one assist each, and both received the Golden Shoe.[12] Romário and Andersson surpassed the other two players with five goals (Jürgen Klinsmann and Roberto Baggio) by having three assists each.[12][22] 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.[25] Klose, however, was the top scorer of the group stage, as Ronaldo and Rivaldo made their fifth goals in the round of 16 and the quarter-final respectively. 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).[27] Müller, Villa, Sneijder and Diego Forlán tied with five goals. Müller won by virtue of having more assists (3) 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.[28] 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).[29] Griezmann, Lukaku, Denis Cheryshev, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappé tied with 4 goals. In the assists tiebreaker, Griezmann won the Silver Boot by virtue of having 2, while Lukaku got the Bronze Boot as he had one. The rest had zero.[30]

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.[4] 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. In the event of a tie, the Golden Glove Award goes to the goalkeeper who progressed furthest in the competition. The next tiebreakers are saves made, then minutes played.

World Cup	Golden Glove
1994 United States	Michel Preud'homme
1998 France	Fabien Barthez
2002 South Korea/Japan	Oliver Kahn
2006 Germany	Gianluigi Buffon
2010 South Africa	Iker Casillas
2014 Brazil	Manuel Neuer
2018 Russia	Thibaut Courtois

The Best Young Player award was awarded for the first time at the 2006 World Cup in Germany and given to Germany's Lukas Podolski.[31] The award is given to the best player in the tournament who is at most 21 years old. For the 2018 World Cup, this meant that the player had to have been born on or after 1 January 1997. The election took place on FIFA's official World Cup website with the help of The FIFA Technical Study Group.[32]

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.[33] 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.[34]

YPA[35]

World Cup	Best 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[31]	21
2010 South Africa	Thomas Müller[36]	20
2014 Brazil	Paul Pogba[37]	21
2018 Russia	Kylian Mbappé[38]	19

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.[39]

The appearance of the award was originally a certificate. From 1982 to 1990, it had been a golden trophy based on Sport Billy, a football-playing cartoon character from 1982 who became an icon for FIFA Fair play.[40][41] Ever since 1994, it is simply a trophy with an elegant footballer figure.[42] 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.[43]

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

The Man of the Match award picks the outstanding player in every game of the tournament since 2002. While the inaugural two editions were chosen by the technical group,[44][45] the Man of the Match is since 2010 picked by an online poll on FIFA's website.[46][47]

World Cup	Most Man of the Match 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	3

Total awards
As of 15 July 2018

Rank	Player	Country	MoM	WC with awards
1	Arjen Robben	Netherlands	6	2006, 2010, 2014
	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal		2010, 2014, 2018
	Lionel Messi	Argentina		2010, 2014, 2018
4	Luis Suárez	Uruguay	5	2010, 2014, 2018
5	Eden Hazard	Belgium	4	2014, 2018
	Keisuke Honda	Japan		2010, 2014
	James Rodríguez	Colombia		2014, 2018
	Miroslav Klose	Germany		2002, 2006
	Park Ji-sung	South Korea		2002, 2006, 2010
	Thomas Müller	Germany		2010, 2014
	Wesley Sneijder	Netherlands		2010

By Country
As of 15 July 2018

Rank	Country	MoM	Players
1	Brazil	22	14
	Germany		12
3	France	17	11
4	Spain	16	10
5	Argentina	15	8
6	England	14	12
7	Mexico	12	10
	Netherlands		3
9	South Korea	11	7
	Portugal		6
	United States		7

The FIFA Award for the Most Entertaining Team 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[4] starting in 1994.[10]

World Cup	Most Entertaining Team Award
1994 United States	Brazil[26]
1998 France	France[26]
2002 South Korea/Japan	South Korea[48]
2006 Germany	Portugal[49]
2010 South Africa	Germany
2014 Brazil	Colombia

The All-Star Team is a team of the best performers at the respective World Cup finals. Since 1994, FIFA decided to add official best squads, chosen by its technical group under the brand name MasterCard All-Star Team.[50] For 1998, 2002 and 2006, substitute and reserve members were also nominated for full squads.

World Cup	Player	Scored against	Score (1)	Result (1)	Round	Source
2006 Germany	Maxi Rodríguez	Mexico	2‒1	2‒1	Round of 16	[67]
2010 South Africa	Diego Forlán	Germany	2‒1	2‒3	3rd place match
2014 Brazil	James Rodríguez	Uruguay	1‒0	2‒0	Round of 16
2018 Russia	Benjamin Pavard	Argentina	2‒2	4‒3	Round of 16

• (1) First number represents players team, while second number represents opponents team

Bibliography

• "1982 FIFA World Cup Technical Report" (PDF). FIFA Technical Group. 1982. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 January 2010.
• "2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan: Report and Statistics" (PDF). FIFA Technical Group. 2002. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 July 2009.

• FIFA World Cup Awards on FIFA website