After securing a Golden Ball award at the end of the FIFA World Cup 2022, Argentine Legend Lionel Messi became the first player in history to win two Golden Ball awards in a FIFA World Cup career.
Argentina successfully lifted the FIFA World Cup 2022 trophy as it was their third World Cup title, after winning it in 1978 and 1986. Skipper Lionel Messi hugely influenced the team to achieve this top success. Apart from scoring seven goals in the tournament (second most goals in WC 2022), Messi also provided three assists (joint most assists in WC 2022). He won the record-breaking five Man of the Match awards in this tournament, including winning the Player of the Match award in the final.
First player to win two Golden Ball awards in FIFA World Cup: Lionel Messi
In the FIFA World Cup, the Golden Ball award is for the best player of the tournament, which was first introduced in 1982. So, there is no doubt about Messi’s Golden Ball award at the end of the World Cup 2022.
During the FIFA World Cup 2014 in Brazil, Messi won his first FIFA World Cup Golden Ball award, where Argentina finished as the runners-up after losing the final against Germany.
Similarly, FIFA also awards the second-best player and third-best player of the FIFA World Cup with the Silver Ball and Bronze Ball respectively.
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FIFA World Cup: Golden Ball, Silver Ball and Bronze Ball winners
Year | Golden Ball | Silver Ball | Bronze Ball |
1982 | Paolo Rossi (Italy) | Falcão (Brazil) | Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (Germany) |
1986 | Diego Maradona (Argentina) | Harald Schumacher (Germany) | Preben Elkjær (Denmark) |
1990 | Salvatore Schillaci (Italy) | Lothar Matthäus (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) |
2022 | Lionel Messi (Argentina) | Kylian Mbappé (France) | Luka Modrić (Croatia) |
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Latest Golden Ball award facts
Lionel Messi became the first player to win two Golden Ball awards in FIFA World Cup history.
After the World Cup 1994 (Brazilian Romário won the Golden Ball award), Messi became the first champion team’s player to win the Golden Ball award. It was the fourth time in FIFA World Cup history that one of the champion side’s players win the Golden Ball award (Paolo Rossi in 1982, Diego Maradona in 1986 and Romário in 1994).
Argentina is the first nation to record three Golden Ball awards in FIFA World Cup history (Diego Maradona in 1986, Lionel Messi in 2014 and Lionel Messi in 2022).
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