History Of World Cup Awards: How It Started

by Rob Williams, 18 Apr, 2018

The Golden Ball, Golden Boot, and Golden Glove have been major awards in the history of World Cups. Among all those awards, there are several other titles that have been in use in the history of FIFA.

Best Young Player Award

The title was first introduced at the 2006 World Cup held in Germany. The title was given to Germany’s professional forward, Lukas Podolski. The title is awarded to the best player in the tournament who is at most 21 years old. It was just a title before the 2006 World Cup.

CAPTION: Pele, 1958 FIFA Cup SOURCE: dfb.de

Brazillian retired professional, Pelé earned the first ever title as the Best Player at the 1958 World Cup at the age of 17.

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	W?adys?aw ?muda	20
1978 Argentina	Antonio Cabrini	20
1982 Spain	Manuel Amoros	21
1986 Mexico	Enzo Scifo	20
1990 Italy	Robert Prosine?ki	21
1994 United States	Marc Overmars	21
1998 France	Michael Owen	18
2002 Korea/Japan	Landon Donovan	20

The title started as the Best Young Player Award and was first awarded in 2006.

World Cup	Best Young Player Award	Age
2006 Germany	Lukas Podolski	21
2010 South Africa	Thomas Müller	20
2014 Brazil	Paul Pogba	21

FIFA Fair Play Trophy

The trophy is given to the team with the best record of fair play during the final tournament of the World Cup. 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.

CAPTION: West Germany v Peru, 1970 World Cup SOURCE: impromptuinc.wordpress.com

The trophy was officially introduced in 1970 and only teams that qualified for the second round are eligible for the trophy.

The appearance of the award was originally a certificate at the beginning. It had been a golden trophy based on Sports Billy, a football-playing cartoon character from 1982 to 1990. It has been simply a trophy with an elegant footballer figure since 1994.

The first title was won by Peru after receiving no yellow or red cards in the 1970 World Cup.

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 Korea/Japan	Belgium
2006 Germany	Brazil
2010 South Africa	Spain
2014 Brazil	Colombia

Man of the Match

The title is awarded to the outstanding player in every game of the tournament. The award has been presented since 2002. The first two editions were chosen by the technical group and were picked by an online poll on FIFA’s website since 2010.

CAPTION: Rivaldo SOURCE: Goal.com

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

CAPTION: Lionel Messi SOURCE: FootTheBall

Argentine Professional, Lionel Messi became the Man of the Match in the 2014 World Cup.

Most Entertaining Team

The FIFA Award for the Most Entertaining Team was a subjectively awarded prize for the team which had done the most to entertain the public with a positive approach to the game, organized through public participation in a poll. It was awarded between 1994 and 2006.

CAPTION: Brazil SOURCE: worldcupbrazil.net

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

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