Golden Ball
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 2002 FIFA World Cup. At the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Lionel Messi became the first player to win a second Golden Ball. [6]
Official winners (1982–present)
| 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 (1978 Argentina)
A group of journalists and experts selected the best player of the 1978 tournament, [8] and their selection is recognised by the FIFA website. FIFA recognises only this selection besides the Golden Ball award. Hans Krankl received the same number of votes as Dirceu at the time, [8] and was not chosen as the third best player by FIFA later.
| Winner | Runner-up | Third place |
|---|---|---|
| Mario Kempes [9] | Paolo Rossi [10] |  Dirceu [10] |
Media's selections (1930–1974)
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, [11] and it gained the most attention among experts' selections about the best players until 1978. This work is part of the official FIFA library. [12] A considerable number of other media agreed with him. [13] [14] [15] [16]
On 2 August 1950, Dr. Friedebert Becker , the editor-in-chief of Kicker (then Sport-Magazin), chose his best players of the tournament. [17]
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. [18]
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. [19]
