Silver Ball and Bronze Ball awards as the second and third most outstanding players in the tournament respectively. The current award was introduced in the 1982 FIFA World Cup, sponsored by Adidas and France Football. Oliver Kahn is to date the only goalkeeper to have won the award, which he did in the FIFA World Cup 2002. At the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Lionel Messi became the first player to win two Golden Balls. Official winners Unofficial winner The following players were recognised as best players by FIFA website. Also, FIFA only recognizes the 1978 Golden Ball award prior to 1982. FIFA does not recognize Golden Ball awards from 1930 to 1974. Media's selections Authoritative football historian and statistician Ejikeme Ikwunze, popularly called "Mr. Football", published a list of the best players in his book World Cup (1930-2010): A Statistical Summary, and it gained the most attention among experts' selections about the best players until 1978. This work is part of the official FIFA library, and received public recognition from his former presidents Joao Havelange and Joseph Blatter. A considerable number of other media agreed with him. {| class="wikitable" |+''World Cup (1930-2010): A Statistical Summarys Best Player |- !World Cup !scope=col style="background-color: gold" | First place !scope=col style="background-color: silver" | Second place !scope=col style="background-color: #cc9966" | Third place |- |align=left|1930 Uruguay | José Nasazzi | Guillermo Stábile | José Leandro Andrade |- |align=left|1934 Italy | Giuseppe Meazza | Matthias Sindelar | Oldrich Nejedly |- |align=left|1938 France | Leônidas | Silvio Piola | György Sárosi |- |align=left|1950 Brazil | Zizinho | Juan Alberto Schiaffino |align="center"|did not select |- |align=left|1954 Switzerland | Ferenc Puskas | Sandor Kocsis | Fritz Walter |- |align=left|1958 Sweden | Didi | Pelé | Just Fontaine |- |align=left|1962 Chile | Garrincha | Josef Masopust | Leonel Sánchez |- |align=left|1966 England | Bobby Charlton | Bobby Moore |align="center"|did not select |- |align=left|1970 México | Pelé | Gérson | Gerd Müller |- |align=left|1974 West Germany | Johan Cruyff | Franz Beckenbauer | Kazimierz Deyna |- |align=left|1978 Argentina | Mario Kempes | Paolo Rossi |align="center"|did not select |} On 2 August 1950, Dr. , the editor-in-chief of Kicker (then Sport-Magazin), chose his best players of the tournament. France Football, the sponsor of Golden Ball and Ballon d'Or, selected the best player of the 1966 FIFA World Cup at that time with L'Équipe, and Bobby Charlton became the winner. After the 1978