World Cup Golden Ball: Best player and most assists for Qatar 2022
Argentina and France contested the World Cup final on Sunday with Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann hoping to inspire their nations to glory.
Pre-tournament, a lot of players will have been eyeing up the Golden Boot — the award for the most goals scored — as it will often boost their teams chances of winning the World Cup. But thankfully there are others ways of recognising the best players, that doesn’t just look at goalscorers.
The World Cup Golden Ball award was first officially introduced in 1982 for the World Cup in Spain, after an unofficial Golden Ball was awarded to Mario Kempes in 1978. The first official winner of the Golden ball was Paolo Rossi as he helped guide Italy to their third World Cup crown, beating West Germany in the final. Since Rossi’s win, nine other players have won the Golden Ball, with no player winning it more than once.
2022 World Cup Golden Ball pre-tournament favourites
| Player | Midnite odds |
| Lionel Messi | 7/1 |
| Kylian Mbappe | 10/1 |
| Neymar | 10/1 |
| Kevin De Bruyne | 12/1 |
| Karim Benzema | 12/1 |
| Harry Kane | 17/1 |
| Vinicius Jr | 20/1 |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | 25/1 |
| Raphinha | 25/1 |
| Lautaro Martinez | 33/1 |
You have to be 18+ to gamble. All odds within this article are accurate at the time of writing (21:00, 16/11/2022).GambleAware.
Rossi is also one of just two players to win the official Golden Ball as well as the Golden Boot at the same World Cup, topscoring in 1982 with three goals. Another Italian, Salvatore Schillaci is the only other player to achieve the feat with the Golden Ball in 1990 and the Golden Boot (six goals) but his side only finished third. It is worth noting that Kempes, the winner of the unofficial Golden Ball in 1978 was also top scorer with six goals to help hosts Argentina win the World Cup.
In 2018 Luka Modric was the Golden Ball winner as he inspired Croatia to a silver medal, pipping Eden Hazard to the post; Antoine Griezmann completed the top three taking home the Bronze Ball. Modric had a chance to become the first player to win two Golden Balls, but despite a good tournament he fell short, with 2014 winner Lionel Messi claiming his second crown after leading Argentina to World Cup glory.
Another thing to look at for the Golden Ball is how creative a player is, with assists also important for helping teams win the World Cup. Currently leading the way for assists at the 2022 World Cup are Antoine Griezmann, Bruno Fernandes, Harry Kane and now Messi after his exploits in the semi-final. Two remain in the competition and it’s fitting that Griezmann or Messi could provide the assist to win the World Cup for their respective nations.
2022 World Cup assist leaders
| Position | Player | Assists | xA | Minutes Played |
| 1st | Bruno Fernandes | 3 | 1.22 | 357 |
| 2nd | Harry Kane | 3 | 0.65 | 404 |
| 3rd | Antoine Griezmann | 3 | 3.54 | 537 |
| 4th | Ivan Perisic | 3 | 0.55 | 670 |
| 5th | Lionel Messi | 3 | 1.89 | 690 |
| 6th | Marcus Thuram | 2 | 0.11 | 147 |
| 7th | Mislav Orsic | 2 | 0.63 | 160 |
| 8th | Davy Klaassen | 2 | 0.06 | 191 |
| 9th | Andrija Zivkovic | 2 | 0.82 | 213 |
| 10th | Dusan Tadic | 2 | 1.07 | 258 |
Players with the same amount of assists are ranked by fewer minutes played. Stats correct as of 08:30, 19/12/22.
