While the Golden Boot rewards goals, the Golden Ball rewards overall excellence: it is awarded to the best player at each World Cup, as voted by media representatives from a shortlist drawn up by FIFA's technical study group. The award has existed since 1982, and its list of winners reads like a history of modern football, from Maradona's dominance in 1986 to Messi's coronation in 2022. Understanding who won, and why, is a shortcut to understanding each tournament.

The most celebrated Golden Ball win belongs to Diego Maradona in 1986. Maradona scored five goals and made five assists in Mexico, including the two most famous goals in World Cup history in the same match against England: the Hand of God and the Goal of the Century, a solo dribble from his own half. He then created both goals in the semifinal against Belgium and set up the winner in the final against West Germany. No player has dominated a World Cup so completely, and Maradona's 1986 Golden Ball is often cited as the greatest individual tournament performance ever.

Other Golden Ball winners defined their tournaments in different ways. Romario won in 1994 for carrying Brazil to the trophy with five goals and constant menace, while Ronaldo won in 1998 despite Brazil losing the final, a rare case of the award going to a player from the runners-up. Zinedine Zidane won in 2006 after a tournament that ended with his sending-off in the final, a reminder that the award judges the whole tournament rather than a single match. In the modern era, Lionel Messi won the Golden Ball twice, in 2014 and 2022, becoming the first player to win it twice. His 2014 win was controversial, since Argentina lost the final and Messi scored no goals in the knockout stage, but his 2022 win was unanimous: seven goals, three assists, and a final performance for the ages.

The Golden Ball has also produced surprises that reveal how the award works. Oliver Kahn, Germany's goalkeeper, won in 2002, the only goalkeeper ever to receive the award, after a tournament of extraordinary saves that carried Germany to the final. Luka Modric won in 2018 after leading Croatia, a nation of four million people, to the final, a triumph of midfield control over goalscoring glamour. These wins show that the Golden Ball rewards influence rather than statistics: the player who shaped the tournament most, regardless of position or trophy.

The Golden Ball matters because it answers a question fans debate after every tournament: who was actually the best player? The answer is not always the top scorer or the winning captain, and the award's history proves it. From Maradona's genius to Kahn's goalkeeping, from Modric's midfield mastery to Messi's double, the Golden Ball captures what made each tournament distinctive. As the expanded 2026 tournament unfolds, the race for the next Golden Ball will follow the same logic: look for the player who defines the tournament, not just the one who scores the most goals.

The Golden Ball voting process itself is worth understanding. During the final, a shortlist is drawn up by FIFA's technical study group, a panel of former players and coaches who have watched every match of the tournament. Media representatives then vote for the winner, with the announcement made shortly after the final whistle. The shortlist usually contains around ten players, and the winner is not always from the championship team: Ronaldo won in 1998 despite Brazil losing the final, and Oliver Kahn won in 2002 despite Germany losing to Brazil. The award has also recognised players whose teams did not reach the final at all in earlier eras, though the modern trend favours finalists. One notable winner often forgotten is Uruguay's Diego Forlan, who won the Golden Ball in 2010 after scoring five goals and leading Uruguay to fourth place, their best finish in forty years. Forlan's win is a reminder that the Golden Ball rewards tournament impact, not just trophies.