Quiz! Name the top-three finishers in World Cup Golden Ball standings 1986-2014
It’s the best three players – according to the official FIFA award, anyway – at every World Cup from Mexico 1986 to Brazil 2014. Name these superstars…
Gauging the best player at a World Cup isn’t easy. Sometimes, such as in 1986, the pick is so obvious that even FIFA couldn’t muck it up. At other times, votes are split between flying goalkeepers, totemic defenders, midfield wizards and hot-shot strikers.
It hasn’t helped that FIFA tend to vote on the Golden Ball award, given to a tournament’s best player, before the actual final. In more than one case, this precipitated a player having a bit of a stinker in the event's showpiece occasion itself. Oops.
Yet each of these players have made the podium for the best player in a World Cup. No Englishmen, you’ll note, which is particularly crushing when we recall Emile Heskey putting Denmark to the sword in 2002.
Now, six minutes are on the clock to try to get all 24 answers. Let us know how you do @FourFourTwo – we’ll retweet the best, if you don’t give answers away – and then challenge some worldly and/or golden pals. Yes!
(Note: Adblockers can stop you seeing our quizzes – please turn them off. Thanks)
More time-killing quizzes on FourFourTwo.com
Get FourFourTwo Newsletter
The best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week.
Alex Reid is a freelance journalist and the former digital features editor at FourFourTwo. He has also written for the Guardian, talkSPORT, Boxing News and Sport magazine. Like most Londoners, he is a lifelong supporter of Aberdeen FC. He is deceptively bad in the air for a big man. He has never been a cage fighter.