The FIFA World Cup is set to return in Qatar later this year with top players from 32 of the best nations in world football battling it out to find out who comes out on top as the reigning world champions.
To celebrate the return of the famous competition, let’s take a look at who won the FIFA World Cup’s first-ever golden ball award.
What Is FIFA’s Golden Ball Award?
The best player at each FIFA World Cup finals is named the recipient of the Golden Ball award. FIFA’s technical committee (Technical Study Group) usually draws up the shortlist with the winner being selected by various representatives of the media. The second-best player in each World Cup finals gets awarded the Silver Ball and the third-best player earns the Bronze Ball award.
FIFA officially began to give the Golden Ball award for the first time in the 1982 FIFA World Cup, which was sponsored by Adidas and France Football.
FIFA World Cup’s First Unofficial Golden Ball Winner
José Nasazzi was the recipient of the FIFA World Cup’s first unofficial golden ball award for his incredible contributions to the tournament back in 1930, according to the book, ‘World Cup (1930-2010): The first unofficial Golden Ball was won by Jose Nasazzi representing Uruguay.
Here is a full list of other unofficial winners, according to the same book.
| World Cup | Winner | Runner-up | Third place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1930 Uruguay |  José Nasazzi |  Guillermo Stábile | José Leandro Andrade |
| 1934 Italy |  Giuseppe Meazza |  Matthias Sindelar |  Oldrich Nejedly |
| 1938 France |  Leonidas da Silva | Silvio Piola |  György Sárosi |
| 1950 Brazil | Zizinho | Juan Alberto Schiaffino | Obdulio Varela |
| 1954 Switzerland | Ferenc Puskas | Sandor Kocsis |  Fritz Walter |
| 1958 Sweden | Didí | Pelé |  Just Fontaine |
| 1962 Chile | Garrincha | Josef Masopust |  Leonel Sánchez |
| 1966 England |  Bobby Charlton | Bobby Moore |  Eusébio |
| 1970 México | Pelé | Gérson | Gerd Müller |
| 1974 West Germany |  Johan Cruyff | Franz Beckenbauer |  Kazimierz Deyna |
FIFA World Cup’s First Official Golden Ball Winner
Paulo Rossi won the FIFA World Cup’s first official golden ball award back in 1982 when the prestigious tournament took place in Spain. Paolo Rossi of Italy won the first official golden ball award in the World Cup held in Spain in 1982 with Falcao from Brazil finishing second.
The following list includes the other recipients of the famous award.
| World Cup | Golden Ball | Silver Ball | Bronze Ball |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 Spain | Paolo Rossi |  Falcão | Karl-Heinz Rummenigge |
| 1986 Mexico | Diego Maradona | Harald Schumacher |  Preben Elkjær |
| 1990 Italy | Salvatore Schillaci | Lothar Matthäus | Diego Maradona |
| 1994 United States | Romário | Roberto Baggio |  Hristo Stoichkov |
| 1998 France | Ronaldo |  Davor Šuker | Lilian Thuram |
| 2002 South Korea/Japan | Oliver Kahn | Ronaldo |  Hong Myung-bo |
| 2006 Germany | Zinedine Zidane |  Fabio Cannavaro | Andrea Pirlo |
| 2010 South Africa | Diego Forlán | Wesley Sneijder |  David Villa |
| 2014 Brazil | Lionel Messi | Thomas Müller | Arjen Robben |
| 2018 Russia | Luka Modrić |  Eden Hazard | Antoine Griezmann |
Golden Ball Award is one of the most prestigious awards in the FIFA World Cup along with the Golden Boot and Golden Gloves. Luka Modric, the Real Madrid star who represented Croatia in the 2018 World Cup won the Golden Ball in the edition played in Russia with Messi winning the one in 2014.
Who according to you will win the Golden Ball in 2022?
