FIFA World Cup Golden Ball Winners: The Complete List
The FIFA World Cup brings together the best soccer talent from around the globe. But only one can stand above the rest.
The men’s World Cup first took place in 1930, but the inception of the Golden Ball—given to the best individual player for the entire tournament—didn’t take place until 1982. The winner is chosen by members of the media, who vote for a winner from a list of candidates selected by FIFA’s technical committee. The second- and third-place finishers are awarded the Silver Ball and Bronze Ball, respectively.
The award does not always go to a player from the championship-winning team—in fact, more often than not, it doesn’t. To date, 10 Golden Ball prizes have been awarded, with just three playing for the tournament champion.
Croatia’s Luka Modrić won the award in 2018, the most recent iteration of the event. Check out the full list of winners below.
| World Cup | Golden Ball | Silver Ball | Bronze Ball |
|---|---|---|---|
1982 Spain | Paolo Rossi (Italy) | Falcão (Brazil) | Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (West Germany) |
1986 Mexico | Diego Maradona (Argentina) | Harald Schumacher (West Germany) | Preben Elkjær (Denmark) |
1990 Italy | Salvatore Schillaci (Italy) | Lotah Matthäus (West Germany) | Diego Maradona (Argentina) |
1994 United States | Romário (Brazil) | Roberto Baggio (Italy) | Hristo Stoichkov (Bulgaria) |
1998 France | Ronaldo (Brazil) | Davor Šuker (Croatia) | Lilian Thuram (France) |
2002 South Korea/Japan | Oliver Kahn (Germany) | Ronaldo (Brazil) | Hong Myung-bo (South Korea) |
2006 Germany | Zinedine Zidane (France) | Fabio Cannavaro (Italy) | Andrea Pirlo (Italy) |
2010 South Africa | Diego Forlán (Uruguay) | Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands) | David Villa (Spain) |
2014 Brazil | Lionel Messi (Argentina) | Thomas Müller (Germany) | Arjen Robben (Netherlands) |
2018 Russia | Luka Modrić (Croatia) | Eden Hazard (Belgium) | Antoine Griezmann (France) |
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