The Golden Ball, first awarded in 1982, has long stood among the World Cup\u2019s defining individual honours. Voted for by accredited media representatives covering the tournament, it recognises the competition\u2019s outstanding performer and sits alongside the Golden Boot and Golden Glove as one of the three major individual awards.<\/p>\n
Over the decades, the prize has often gone to players who shaped the story of the tournament itself. The opening winner was Italy\u2019s Paolo Rossi in 1982, after he scored six goals, including one in the final against Germany, as Italy went on to lift the title.<\/p>\n
Eight years later, Salvatore Schillaci followed in his compatriot\u2019s footsteps with another six-goal campaign, although Italy finished third that time. Between those two Italian successes came Diego Maradona\u2019s remarkable 1986 tournament with Argentina, a campaign remembered for the \u2018Hand of God\u2019 and his brilliant solo goal against England.<\/p>\n
Brazil then claimed successive Golden Balls before the turn of the millennium. Rom\u00e1rio took the prize in 1994 after helping the Sele\u00e7\u00e3o to the trophy with five goals, while Ronaldo was recognised in 1998 despite Brazil\u2019s final defeat to France, a match in which illness and injury restricted him.<\/p>\n
Oliver Kahn became the first, and still only, goalkeeper to win the award in 2002, after Germany had kept five clean sheets in six matches before the final. Zinedine Zidane then won it in 2006, even after France\u2019s final defeat to Italy, following three goals and a commanding display against defending champions Brazil in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
Diego Forl\u00e1n\u2019s five goals carried Uruguay to the semifinals in 2010, while Lionel Messi finished runner-up with Argentina in 2014 before winning the prize in 2022 for a second time. Luka Modri\u0107 received the 2018 award after Croatia\u2019s run to the final, and Rodri was the latest recipient in 2026, reflecting on his recovery from an ACL with these words: \u201cI hope people can see that a player who touches the very top and then hits rock bottom\u2014if you put in the effort, life eventually pays you back,\u201d the Manchester City midfielder emotionally reflected. \u201cI\u2019m an example of overcoming adversity. There are many people who don\u2019t know me personally, but I\u2019ve felt the support and affection of the people back in Spain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Argentina now leads the way with three Golden Ball wins, followed by Italy and Brazil on two apiece. Spain, Croatia, France, Germany and Uruguay each have one, while England remains without a winner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A full history of the World Cup Golden Ball and every winner since the award began in 1982.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17837,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[1064,593,1558],"class_list":["post-17838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-ballon-dor-2","tag-ballon-dor","tag-brazil"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}