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 media voting receive the adidas Silver Ball and Bronze Ball awards as the 2nd and 3rd most outstanding players in the tournament respectively.

This Award was first awarded in 1982.
World Cup Golden Ball Winner
1982 Spain                                Italy Paolo Rossi
1986 Mexico                             Argentina Diego Maradona
1990 Italy                                Italy Salvatore Schillaci
1994 USA                                 Brazil Romário
1998 France                             Brazil Ronaldo
2002 Korea/Japan                  Germany Oliver Kahn
2006 Germany                        France Zinedine Zidane

The Yashin Award for the World Cup’s Best Goalkeeper is named in honor of the late goalkeeper Lev Yashin (USSR).

It was first awarded in 1994:

World Cup     Yashin Award winner

1. 1994 USA:      Michel Preud’homme – Belgium
2. 1998 France: Fabien Barthez – France
3. 2002 Korea/Japan:     Oliver Kahn – Germany
4. 2006 Germany:     Gianluigi Buffon – Italy

The Golden Shoe Award goes to the top goalscorer of the FIFA World Cup.

The award was introduced at the 1930 World Cup. The 1994 World Cup in the United States was the first time that Silver and Bronze boots awards were added to reward the second and third top scorers in the tournament. Since 1994, if there is more than one player with the same amount of goals, the tie-breaker goes to the player who has contributed the most assists (with the FIFA Technical Study Group deciding whether an assist is to be counted as such). If there is still more than one player, the tie-breaker goes to the player who has played the least amount of time.

The The FIFA World Cup most successful nations are:

Brazil – 5 times

Italy – 4 times

Germany – 3 times

Argentina – 2 times

Uruguay – 2 times

France – 1 time

England – 1 time