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Adidas Golden Ball

The Golden Ball is an award attributed to the most outstanding player of the World Cup final tournament. FIFA announces a shortlist of ten nominees which is then voted by media representatives. The most voted player is elected to win the Golden Ball, the second most voted player wins the Silver Ball and the third most voted player wins the Bronze Ball. Its awarding is shrouded by allegations of being influenced by diplomacy: the three awards have always been won by players from three different nations.

World Cup Adidas Golden Ball Adidas Silver Ball Adidas Bronze Ball
1982 Spain Paolo Rossi
(Italy)
Falcão
(Brazil)
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
(Germany)
1986 Mexico Diego Maradona
(Argentina)
Harald Schumacher
(Germany)
Preben Elkjær
(Denmark)
1990 Italy Salvatore Schillaci
(Italy)
Lothar Matthäus
(Germany)
Diego Maradona
(Argentina)
1994 USA Romário
(Brazil)
Roberto Baggio
(Italy)
Hristo Stoitchkov
(Bulgaria)
1998 France Ronaldo
(Brazil)
Davor Šuker
(Croatia)
Lilian Thuram
(France)
2002 Korea/Japan Oliver Kahn
(Germany)
Ronaldo
(Brazil)
Hong Myung-Bo
(South Korea)
2006 Germany Zinedine Zidane (France) Fabio Cannavaro (Italy) Andrea Pirlo (Italy)