Lionel Messi gained some small consolation for Argentina’s
defeat to Germany in the World Cup final when he was named the Golden Ball
player of the tournament.
The Barcelona forward played a key role in Argentina's walk
to the final at the Maracana stadium in Rio, picking up four man-of-the-match
awards.
He scored four goals at the tournament, but failed to pick
up the one honor eluding him after Germany substitute Mario Gotze's
113th-minute goal dashed the South Americans' dream of a third title.
Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer kept a clean sheet in the
final and he was rewarded for a number of fine performances in Brazil with the
Golden Glove award for the best goalkeeper of the tournament.
Speaking in the immediate aftermath of victory Neuer said:
"It is unbelievable. The team has done superbly, not only the players, but
also the team behind the team. At some point we will stop celebrating, but we
will always stand up again with a smile."
Colombia's young striker James Rodriguez claimed the Golden
Boot for the World Cup's top scorer honours with six goals.
Despite his country going out at the quarter-final stage,
the 23-year-old's haul was never matched.
Germany's Thomas Muller ended up in second place with five
goals, while Messi, injured Brazil star Neymar and Netherlands striker Robin
van Persie shared third spot on four.
The Young Player award went to France midfielder Paul Pogba.
FIFA, as always, awarded the individual accolades to the
players for their performances in the 2014 World Cup. Here is the complete list
of the 2014 World Cup Award nominees and winners:
Golden Ball:
The most prestigious award of the World Cup, the Golden
Ball, which has been won by the likes of Brazil striker Ronaldo (1998), Germany
goalkeeper Oliver Kahn (2002), France midfielder Zinedine Zidane (2006) and
Uruguay striker Diego Forlan (2010), is given to the player who has been
consistent and put in some match winning performances for his side.
The FIFA technical committee shortlist five players and the
representatives of the media cast their vote to the player of their choice. The
winner and the two runners up are given the Golden, Silver and Bronze Ball
respectively.
Here are the winners:
Adidas Golden Ball – Lionel Messi (Argentina)
Adidas Silver Ball – Thomas Muller (Germany)
Adidas Bronze Ball – Arjen Robben (Netherlands)
Other nominees: Neymar (Brazil) and James Rodriguez
(Colombia)
Golden Boot:
The Golden Boot is awarded to the player who scores the
highest goals in the World Cup finals. If there is a tie, the award goes to the
player with the highest assists.
If there is more than one player with the same amount of
goals, the tie-breaker goes to the player who has contributed the most assists
(with the FIFA Technical Study Group deciding whether an assist is to be
counted as such). If there is still more than one player, the tie-breaker goes
to the player who has played the least amount of time. Croatia's Davor Šuker
(1998), Brazil's Ronaldo (2002), Germany's Miroslav Klose (2006) and Thomas
Muller (2010) have won this awards in the past editions of the World Cup.
Here are the winners:
Adidas Golden Boot: James Rodriguez (Colombia) – 6 goals
Adidas Silver Boot: Thomas Muller (Germany) – 5 goals
Adidas Bronze Boot: Neymar (Brazil) – 4 goals
Runners-up: Lionel Messi – 4 goals, Robin van Persie – 4
goals
Golden Glove:
The Golden Glove, which was known as the Yashin Award (in
honour of the late Soviet Union goalkeeper Lev Yashin) before 2010, is awarded
to the best goalkeeper of the tournament, as chosen by the FIFA Technical Study
Group.
France's Fabien Barthez (1998), Germany's Oliver Kahn,
Italy's Gianluigi Buffon (2006) and Spain's Iker Casillas (2010) have received
this award in the past.
This year the award went to Germany's Manual Neuer.
Runners ups were Keylor Navas (Costa Rica) and Sergio Romero
(Argentina)
Best Young Player:
The Young Player award was introduced in 2006 to acknowledge
the impact made by young players (under the age of 21 years) in their debut
World Cup.
Technical abilities such as skill, style and charisma along
with hard work and fair play are taken into account as FIFA Technical Study
Group chooses the best young player.
Germany's Lukas Podolski (2006) and Thomas Muller (2010)
have won this award on previous occasions.
Winner: Paul Pogba (France)
Runners up: Memphis Depay (Netherlands) and Raphaël Varane
(France)
FIFA Fair Play Award:
The FIFA Fair Play award is given to the teams with the best
disciplinary record. However, only teams who have qualified out of the group
stages are considered.
Belgium (2002), Brazil and Spain (2006), Spain (2010) have
received this award on previous occasions.
This year's winners were Colombia, who only received five
booking in the entire tournament.