FIFA World Cup Young Player Award

FIFA World Cup Finals 1958 to 2022 Best Young Player Award

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List of the Best Young Player awards by the Year of the World Cup. The FIFA World Cup Best Young Player was awarded for the first time at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany and given to Germany’s Lukas Podolski. At every Football World Cup , the award is given to the best player in the tournament who is at most 21 years old. For the 2006 FIFA World Cup, this meant that the player had to have been born on or after 1 January 1985. The election took place on FIFA’s official World Cup website with the help of The FIFA Technical Study Group. FIFA also organised a survey on the Internet for users to choose the “best young player” of the World Cup, between the years 1958 and 2002, which appears in the list of World Cup Best Young Players.

Year & VenuePlayerAgeNation
1958 SwedenPelé17

Brazil Football

1962 ChileFlórián Albert20

Paraguay Fooball

1966 EnglandFranz Beckenbauer20

Germany Football

1970 MexicoTeófilo Cubillas21

Mexico Football

1974 West GermanyWładysław Żmuda20

Poland Football

1978 ArgentinaAntonio Cabrini20

Italy Football

1982 SpainManuel Amoros21

France Football

1986 MexicoEnzo Scifo20

Belgium Football

1990 ItalyRobert Prosinečki21

Yugoslavia Football

1994 United StatesMarc Overmars21

Netherlands Football

1998 FranceMichael Owen18

England Football

2002 South Korea/JapanLandon Donovan20

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2006 GermanyLukas Podolski21

Germany Football

2010 South AfricaThomas Müller20

Germany Football

2014 BrazilPaul Pogba21

France Football

2018 RussiaKylian Mbappé19

France Football

2022 QatarYoussoufa Moukoko18

Germany Football

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