World Cup Awards Odds: Golden Ball, Golden Boot, Golden Glove and more

The World Cup is the biggest sporting event in 2022, and the post-tournament awards are a great way to spice up things a bit as viewers can root for their favorite players to win these trophies awarded for the best individual players of the tourney.  

There are currently five awards given out post-tournament and two during the tournament and the most important awards are the golden boot, the golden glove and the golden ball. 

World Cup Awards odds can be found below:

List of World Cup post-tournament awards

Golden Ball

Given out for the first time at the 1982 tournament, this prize is handed out to the player deemed to be the best of the competition. Currently deemed the adidas Golden Ball due to sponsorship reasons, a shortlist for the Golden Ball is compiled by the technical committee. Members of the media then vote on the winner, with many football fans placing bets on the Golden Ball odds over the course of the tournament. While some of the other awards are also prestigious, there is no doubt the Golden Ball tops the lot.

Golden Boot

Initially known as the Golden Shoe, the Golden Boot is the individual award that is given to the top goalscorer during the tournament. Unlike some of the other major player awards at the competition, the Golden Boot is not decided by a panel of experts. Instead, the Golden Boot simply goes to the player who scores the most goals. In the event of a tie, the winner of the Golden Boot goes to the player with the fewer goals scored from penalties. If there is still no split, the player with the most assists gets the Golden Boot.

Golden Glove

One of the newer World Cup awards odds for football fans to check out concerns the Golden Glove, an award given to the tournament’s best goalkeeper. When this award was introduced for the 1994 tournament, it was handed out under the name Lev Yashin as a mark of respect to the late Soviet star, one of the best ever goalkeepers. The winner of the Golden Glove is decided by experts within the Technical Study Group.

Best Young Player

Another very recently created option in the World Cup awards odds concerns the prize for the best young player, who is 21 or younger at the start of the year in which the tournament is being played. The first time that the Best Young Player was given out was at the 2006 competition, with Lukas Podolski of Germany taking home the prize.

Goal of the Tournament

There are not usually any World Cup awards odds for this one, but football fans still love to see which player is given the Goal of the Tournament award. This one is awarded after a public poll that takes place once the competition is over. As is the case with the prize for the best young player, the award for the top goal of the tournament was given out for the first time at the 2006 event, with Argentina star Maxi Rodriguez winning it.

List of World Cup awards given out during the tournament

Man of The Match award

One of the top sets of World Cup awards odds of interest to football fans during the tournament is the man of the match prize given out for every game. Most bookmakers will have World Cup awards odds for the man of the match prize available to browse in the lead up to each match that takes place during the course of Qatar 2022.

Fair Play Trophy

A more unusual award, this is one of the oldest football prizes around. The Fair Play Trophy is awarded to the team with the best fair play record at the event, with this decided by their disciplinary record. In order to be eligible, teams must make it through the group stage, with the country getting the fewest yellow and red cards triumphing here.

Historic winners & current favourites

Golden Ball

First officially awarded at the 1982 tournament, Italy star Paulo Rossi became the first player to claim the Golden Ball prize. No player has ever won the Golden Ball more than once, though Diego Maradona finished third in the tournament after he won it. Italy (Rossi and Salvatore Schillaci), Argentina ( Maradona and Lionel Messi) and Brazil (Romario and Ronaldo) are the only nations with multiple Golden Ball winners. At the last tournament, Russia 2018, the winner of the Golden Ball was Croatia star Luka Modric with Belgium attacker Eden Hazard second and France forward Antoine Griezmann coming in third place. It is worth noting the Golden Ball winner does not always come from the world champions.

Golden Boot

The top goalscorer is one of the most popular World Cup awards odds for football fans to check out both in the build up to the tournament and once it starts. The award was first known as the Golden Shoe and the inaugural award went to Guillermo Stabile after the Argentina star hit eight goals over the course of the 1930 tournament. France forward Just Fontaine holds the honour of scoring the most goals in a single competition, having hit an amazing 13 goals to claim the Golden Boot award in 1958. As with the Golden Ball, no player has ever won the Golden Boot on more than one occasion. However, the prize has been claimed by some of the greatest players in the history of the game, such as Eusebio (nine goals for Portugal at England 1996), Gerd Muller (ten goals for Germany at Mexico 1970) and Ronaldo (eight goals for Brazil at Japan/Korea 2022). The last winner of the Golden Boot was the England captain Harry Kane, who hit six goals in his country’s run to the semi-finals at Russia 2018, becoming the second English player to take the prize after Gary Lineker also topped the scoring charts at the Mexico contest in 1986.

Golden Glove

Initially given out as the Lev Yashin Award, the inaugural prize for the best goalkeeper at the tournament went to the Belgium stopper Michel Preud’homme at the 1994 World Cup, which was held in the United States. Oliver Kahn is the only goalkeeper to have ever won both the Golden Glove and the Golden Ball, with the Germany great taking the two prizes thanks to his starring performances at the Japan/Korea WC in 2002. Manuel Neuer’s win at Brazil 2014 means Germany became the first nation with multiple winners of the award, which might be worth noting when browsing Golden Glove award odds this year. The most recent winner of the Golden Glove is Thibaut Courtois, who took the prize for best goalkeeper at Russia 2018 to follow in the footsteps of his fellow Belgian Preud’homme.  France’s Fabien Barthez is the only goalkeeper to win the Golden Glove at their home WC.

Best Young Player

Most recently won by the France forward Kylian Mbappe for his stunning performances at Russia 2018, he became the third youngest player in history to take the prize for the Best Young Player at the World Cup. No player has ever taken the award at a younger age than the Brazilian great Pele, who took it when he was 17 at Sweden 1958, which was also the first time that this prize was given out. England’s Michael Owen also took the prize for the Best Young Player at the World Cup when he was still a teenager, having announced himself to the public with an incredible goal in a 1998 game against Argentina. Mbappe became the second straight French winner after Paul Pogba won the prize in 2014.

Goal of the Tournament

Launched for the first time for the 2006 tournament in Germany, Argentina’s Maxi Rodriguez wrote his name in the history books by taking the prize. He was followed by the Uruguay striker Diego Forlan, who was voted the winner of the Goal of the Tournament at South Africa 2010, then it went to James Rodriguez, who scored a stunning strike for Colombia at the 2014 tournament, which took place in Brazil. The most recent winner of the World Cup’s Goal of the Tournament is the France defender Benjamin Pavard, who claimed the honour after scoring an unforgettable goal against Argentina in 2018.

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