The FIFA World Cup is a massive event in the calendar for everyone invested in football, the players, the staff and all the fans the world over.
While winning the World Cup itself and lifting the trophy is a huge achievement and reward, individual awards for players can mean just as much.
The scale of the tournament and the magnitude of what winning it can mean for a country, alongside the fact that it happens once every four years, makes for a highly competitive tournament where players fight for every accolade.
In the modern day, the World Cup offers awards for the best goal scorers, best goalkeepers and many more, with one of these awards often the highlight of a player’s career.
What is the Golden Boot award?
The Golden Boot award is perhaps the most recognised of the player awards at the FIFA World Cup as it is awarded to the player who scores the most goals in one tournament.
Arguably the most important aspect of football; putting the ball in the net, a tournament is very rarely won by a team that doesn’t score a lot more goals than their opposition.
The players who manage to claim the Golden Boot are often the best players in the world at the time, and the list of Golden Boot winners at the FIFA World Cup may as well be the football hall of fame, with legendary players from Ronaldo ‘O Fenômeno’ to Miroslav Klose etched onto the historical list.
Introduced officially in 1982 and originally known as the Golden Shoe, claiming the award is an opportunity to be remembered in World Cup folklore forever – to be included on a list of the some of the greatest players of all time and given legendary status by the fans of your country.
Which countries have won the Golden Boot the most?
While the Golden Boot is awarded to an individual player, that player represents a country, and the World Cup is a competition between nations. It offers that country the bragging rights that they had the best player in the world at that tournament, so the Golden Boot results in as much national recognition as it does for the player.
All Golden Boot-winning nations:
- Argentina – 2
- Brazil – 5
- Bulgaria – 1
- Chile – 1
- Colombia – 1
- Croatia – 1
- Czech Republic – 1
- England – 2
- France – 1
- Germany – 3
- Hungary – 2
- Italy – 2
- Poland – 1
- Portugal – 1
- Russia – 2
- Yugoslavia – 1
Golden Boot winners
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Golden Ball winners
The award for best player at a World Cup is called the Golden Ball. A list of players is drawn up during the World Cup by the FIFA technical committee and the winner is voted for by members of the media.
As you would expect the list features some of the greatest names to grace the game, but there are one or two surprises too. The award was first handed out in 1982.
Golden Glove winners
As the name suggests, the Golden Glove award is given to the best goalkeeper during a World Cup. It was first introduced as the Lev Yashin Award in 1994.
World Cup’s best young player
The FIFA Young Player Award is given to the best performing player at a World Cup that is 21 years old or younger at the time of the tournament.
World Cup FIFA Fair Player Award
The FIFA Fair Play Award is handed out to teams with the best fair play record over the course of the tournament.
World Cup Man of the Match Award
An award for players that amass the most Man of the Match awards during a World Cup. This award was introduced in 2002 and since 2010 MOTM performances have been chosen by online poll on FIFA’s website.
Most World Cup MOTM awards by player:
World Cup Goal of the Tournament Award
World Cup Most Entertaining Team Award
An award for the team that played the most positive and entertaining style of football over the course of the tournament.
World Cup All-Star Team
FIFA have published an all-star team at a number of World Cups over the years, including the best players of the tournaments as voted by the fans and chosen by FIFA. Since 2010 the award was no longer recognised officially but at both the 2014 and 2018 World Cup, an unofficial all-star team was compiled and presented to the fans.
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