Best Young Player Award in FIFA World Cup

Award for the Best Young Player in FIFA World Cup Football

Lukas Podolski

   The Best Young Player award is given by FIFA after finishing a World Cup tournament. This award was awarded for the first time in 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, and German footballer Lukas Podolski got this award. Currently, this award is commercially termed as "Hyundai Best Young Player Award".

   The Best Young Player Award is handed out to a youngster who ‘executes’ beyond all expectations. Only a youngster who is blessed with a rare dosage of deftness and talent is honored with the award.  There is an age limit for this award; the award is only given to a player who has not crossed 21 years of age. The Best Young Player award is given for the best player under 21 years of age at the start of the calendar year, when the certain FIFA World Cup will be start.

   For an example, in the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, this meant that the player had to have been born on or after 1 January 1993. The selection for the “Best Young Player Award” took place on FIFA's official World Cup website with the help of The FIFA Technical Study Group.

   The Best Young Player Award was first introduced by FIFA in 2006 FIFA World Cup Football in Germany. Here we give a list of the “Best Young player” in FIFA World Cup.

2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany: Lukas Podolski 

                       Country: Germany, Age: 21

2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa: Thomas Muller

                       Country: Germany, Age: 20

2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil: Paul Pogba

                       Country: France, Age: 21

   Although the award was introduced in 2006, a unique process initiated by the FIFA helped recognize the best Young Players from previous FIFA World Cup competition. FIFA conducted a survey on the internet and asked users and fans to choose the ‘Best Young Player’ of the World Cup between the years 1958 and 2002. The election for this award was carried out on the official FIFA World Cup website and under the watchful eye of the FIFA Technical Study Group.

Pele in 1958

   The results however were not too much of a surprise, with 61% of the overall votes finding themselves against the name ‘Pele’, Brazilian and the world’s best football legend. Pele scored his first goal for Brazil as a teenager, he was only seventeen years old then. The rest of his career, he scored 77 goals for his country. As a seventeen year old his performances on the field justified the need for a ‘Best Young Player’ award, but there was none back then. After the football legend, Pele, the Peruvian footballer Teofilo Cubillas (the best young player at Mexico 1970), and English footballer Michael Owen (in France 1998 FIFA World Cup, he was eighteen years old), who reached the next place after “Pele” at their debut in FIFA World Cup. 

The list of the “Best Young Player” in the FIFA World Cup during 1958 to 2006:

1958 World Cup in Sweden: Pele

                  Country: Brazil, Age: 17

1962 World Cup in Chile: Florian Albert

                  Country: Hungary, Age: 20

1966 World Cup in England: Franz Beckenbauer

                  Country: West Germany, Age: 20

1970 World Cup in Mexico: Teofilo Cubillas

                  Country: Peru, Age: 21

1974 World Cup in West Germany: Wladyslaw Zmuda

                  Country: Poland, Age: 20

1978 World Cup in Argentina: Antonio Cabrini

                  Country: Italy, Age: 20

1982 World Cup in Spain: Manuel Amoros

                  Country: France, Age: 21

Michael Owen

1986 World Cup in Mexico: Enzo Scifo

Country: Belgium, Age: 20

1990 World Cup in Italy: Robert Prosinecki

Country: Yugoslavia, Age: 21

1994 World Cup in United States: Marc Overmars

Country: Netherlands, Age: 21

1998 World Cup in France: Michael Owen

Country: England, Age: 18

2002 World Cup in Korea & Japan: Landon Donovan

                 Country: United States, Age: 20

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