World Cup 2010 Awards (official FIFA ones, not ours)

July 11th, 2010 | by: Daryl |

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With all the World Cup action over and all the votes tallied, the World Cup awards can now be handed out. And there’s a lot of gold to go around. There’s the Golden Ball for best player (plus silver and bronze for runners up), the Golden Boot for top scorer, the Golden Glove (just one, this ‘aint boxing) for best goalkeeper and the not so golden but still prestigious Best Young Player award (the Golden iPod?)

Read on for an overview of who won what:

1255320_thumb Golden Ball for best player: Diego Forlan (Uruguay)
FIFA drew up the shortlist of 10, and the accredited media (so not World Cup Blog) voted the Uruguayan striker (and, based on this World Cup, creator) as the best player of the tournament. No arguments here.
Silver Ball: Wesley Sneijder(Netherlands)
Bronze Ball: David Villa (Spain)

golden shoe Golden Boot for top scorer: Thomas Mueller (Germany)
There was actually a four way tie at the top of the goalscoring chart with Mueller, David Villa, Wesley Sneijder and Diego Forlan all scoring five goals each. Tie-breaker was assists, which put Mueller on top with three.
Silver Shoe: David Villa (Spain)
Bronze Show: Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands)
Villa and Sneijder had one assist each, and so seems from the FIFA top scorer page (and I’m just guessing here) that Villa finishes above Sneijder based on fewer minutes plated (635 to Sneijder’s 652). No top scorer boots for Forlan, as he played 654 minutes, but luckily he’s got that Golden Ball to console him.

byp Best Young Player: Thomas Mueller (Germany)
Quite a successful awards haul for Mueller. After being named to a shortlist of three along with Mexico’s Gio dos Santos and Ghana’s Andre Ayew, teh 20 year old Mueller was named as Best Young Player by FIFA’s Technical Study Group. I’m assuming that Mueller being tournament top scorer made this an easy choice.

Golden Glove for best goalkeeper: Iker Casillas (Spain)
It’s not clear who decides this award, so I’m going to assume it’s the FIFA Technical Study Group again. Despite conceding to Switzerland in Spain’s opening game (which they lost 1-0), Casillas has been cool as a (non global warming threatened) glacier at World Cup 2010. I imagine competition for this award was tight, with guys like Switzerland’s Diego Benaglio, Portugal’s Eduardo, Uruguay’s Fernando Muslera and even Netherlands’ Maarten Stekelenburg all impressing (others too, but running out of space here). Personally I think Casillas deserves this purely for being brave enough to knock Carles Puyol down to get to a cross, but just two goals conceded in seven games plus captaining a World Cup winning team (and making important saves in the final) makes Casillas more than worthy.

fairplay FIFA Fair Play Award: Spain
I forgot they even did this. But apparently Spain’s eight yellow cards in seven games (five(!) of which came in the final) means the team averaged just 1.14 yellows per game, and zero reds.

(Spain also wins a thing called the World Cup trophy, for beating all the other teams) (except Switzerland)

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Sairax

The only one I would contest is Sneijder #2. I thought Sweinsteiger had a much better tournament. Otherwise, looks good. Congrats to Forlan and Mueller, thought they were both outstanding :)
http://twitter.com/agiamba Aaron Giambattista

Can anyone find pre-tournament odds on Thomas Muller finishing with the Golden Shoe? Please?
arjwiz

I don't remember the odds, but he was the favourite for certain. Dos Santos was second, and Vela was third. I think Badstuber was in there, as well.
JoseJosue

I think he means highest scorer, not best young player.
Dumitru86

Muller scored a goal against Uruguay, wich shouldn't count, because, let's face it, the teams played it like a friendly. Villa should have been awarded instead.
leiris

Pretty fair results. Forlan should have been given both the gold and the silver ball though…he was (at least) two precious metals ahead of Sneijder and Villa.
http://germany.worldcupblog.org/ Jan

LOL.
Bense235

Honestly: This Golden Shoe assists rule is bullcrap. They could have given it to all of the top-scoring player. And the fair-play-award… well, that's bullshit, too. One game with a bad ref can blow it for you. Not as if this award actually matters, at all.

Casillias was a good keeper, but I can't say he was outstanding compared to any of the goalies in the quarterfinals. At least not like Buffon or Kahn before.

I've said enough about the golden ball already, I would have passed it to Xavi or Sneijder, but giving it to Forlan was a consolidation and compensatory call since Uruguay couldn't win anything else.

As for the “young player award”… well, there shouldn't be much of a doubt.
Bense235

Müller was in with a 1:20, Özil with 1:10, Badstuber with a 1:25 (bwin, German bookies). As far as I can recall it, PaddyPower had Müller at 1:30. But that was when Müllers chances of starting weren't that high. I believe right after the tournament began, Müller went down to 1:10 and after the group stage, 1:3,5.
Bense235

Oh, right. That was 1:70.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Gordon-Overkill/720796197 Gordon Overkill

Äääähm, did you actually see the game? ;-)
Bense235

If I were somebody else, I would resort to “sour, sour grapes” or bullshit like that…
JoseJosue

Now you are actually having sour grapes about an internet blog exchange! jajajaja, the irony!
Dumitru86

My whole point is once you get eliminated, that's it, you don't count anymore. The game between semifinalists should be nothing more than an entertaining before the final.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/UGIJR4ULMSJVP2EHQKNK63TN3Q Ndz Edrt

i think so …
http://www.mcalcio.com Marco P.

Based on that last sentence Daryl, the true World Cup champions are Switzerland. Go Schweizer Nati.
http://www.facebook.com/m.elizaldejr Marcos Elizalde

If they give it out to multiple Players it defeats the purpose of awarding it. imagine if 10 players tied for most goals scored. The assist rule is alright in my opinion. It awards the player who not only proved he could score but he can also set up goals for his teammates..

The fair play award was rightfully awarded in my opinion also. Spain had only 3 yellows before the final. who are you referring to that having a bad ref robbed them of this award. and how does this not matter? well unless your a Netherlands fan i guess haha! they probably award players who commited the hardest fouls in the tournament. Mark Van Bommel would clearly win that award!

The Golden Glove Award is for the current tournament only. its not “The Best Keeper in the history of the world cup award!” So your saying that Muller does not deserve the golden boot beacuse he didnt match Ronaldo's performance in 2002 scoring 8 goals! haha

Forlan was clearly the rightful winner. Xavi and Sneijder are good players but they dont mean the same to their team the way Forlan does. If Xavi is having a bad day Iniesta bails him out. and if both of them are playing awful you still have Fabregas. Forlan is the prototypical “Coach on the field” he is the leader and goalscorer of the team. When Forlan tells u to do something on the Uruguayan team, You do it! The same goes for Cristiano Ronaldo on Portugal but this is different. CR9 just wants to be in the spotlight and has tantrums when things dont come out the way he wanted. Forlan makes decisions based on whats best for the TEAM and he led Uruguay all the way to the 3rd place match when they came into the tournament as the weakest team from CONMEBOL
http://www.facebook.com/people/Christian-Stein/511620517 Christian Stein

1) Mueller's awards were well deserved in my opinion
2) Cassilas played really well (though only #4 in fifa's castrol goalkeeper ranking (?!) of this tournament). Maybe that was a tough call but he saved his team in the final in a lot of situations, which in my opinion made him the most outstanding keeper
3) Best player. I would've picked Xavi or Schweinsteiger, but thats just my opinion. Forlan was really good though.
4) Fair-Play. To me this award is a joke and there should be a lot more into that than just the cards. In every game i saw the spanish rolling over the pitch, running to the ref and surrounding him while deliberately asking him to show a card. Maybe thats just me but that's not fair-play. It's a disgrace and should not be tolerated.
5) world champion. spain deserves it. maybe a germany:spain final (including mueller) would've been better (though impossible) but they had it all organised and played with passion and skill.
http://twitter.com/agiamba Aaron Giambattista

Or New Zealand, who finishes as the only unbeaten team in this World Cup.

(What??)
http://www.facebook.com/people/Abdul-Karim-Kamlideen/100001121539316 Abdul Karim Kamlideen

i am hoping that Ghana will make it to the top in the coming world in Brazil 2014.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Abdul-Karim-Kamlideen/100001121539316 Abdul Karim Kamlideen

i am very disappointed in the way that south African played their football
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/CYYNM26FSENKGX2XZ7F5MUIJYM asda

Forlan had Suarez and his hand to help him.
http://twitter.com/Sandbrat__ Cliff Pinto

Ghana should practise penalties before 2014!!! hahahaha
http://twitter.com/Sandbrat__ Cliff Pinto

They beat France!! a team ranked like 100th beat a top 10 ranked team, drew against another top ranked team, and got beaten by a previous world cup winner! We had a tough group to start off with, they gave it their all, and they're a young side. Rather compliment them for trying, than slate them for not going through.
Post world cup we thought they'd lose EVERY match. Well done Bafana Bafana!
http://twitter.com/Sandbrat__ Cliff Pinto

You're an idiot
http://twitter.com/Sandbrat__ Cliff Pinto

unbeaten doesn't mean they're the best! maybe the best in defence, that's it!
http://www.mcalcio.com Marco P.

And you apparently, very insecure.