NaijNaira
I’m sure you are wondering what is the Golden Ball in the World Cup.
FIFA presents the Golden Ball award to the best player at each senior 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 the vote receive the Silver Ball and Bronze Ball awards as the second and third most outstanding players in the tournament respectively.
The Golden Ball award was introduced in the 1982 FIFA World Cup and sponsored by Adidas and France Football.
Paolo Rossi won the award when it was first officially presented while Luka Modrić won the Golden Ball award at the last FIFA World Cup 2018.
You can see the FIFA World Cup Golden Boot Winners List too.
List Of World Cup Golden Ball Winners
| Year | Golden Ball | Silver Ball | Bronze Ball |
| 1982 | Paolo Rossi (Italy) | Falcão (Brazil) | Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (West Germany) |
| 1986 | Diego Maradona (Argentina) | Harald Schumacher (West Germany) | Preben Elkjær (Denmark) |
| 1990 | Salvatore Schillaci (Italy) | Lothar Matthäus (West Germany) | Diego Maradona (Argentina) |
| 1994 | Romário (Brazil) | Roberto Baggio (Italy) | Hristo Stoichkov (Bulgaria) |
| 1998 | Ronaldo (Brazil) | Davor Šuker (Croatia) | Lilian Thuram (France) |
| 2002 | Oliver Kahn (Germany) | Ronaldo (Brazil) | Hong Myung-bo (South Korea) |
| 2006 | Zinedine Zidane (France) | Fabio Cannavaro (Italy) | Andrea Pirlo (Italy) |
| 2010 | Diego Forlán (Uruguay) | Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands) | David Villa (Spain) |
| 2014 | Lionel Messi (Argentina) | Thomas Müller (Germany) | Arjen Robben (Netherlands) |
| 2018 | Luka Modrić (Croatia) | Eden Hazard (Belgium) | Antoine Griezmann (France) |
