Golden Ball - Player of the Tournament Betting

Previous winners of the Golden Ball Award (the current name for Player Of The World Cup) are as follows:

2006 Zinedine Zidane France
2002 Oliver Khan Germany
1998 Ronaldo Brazil
1994 Romario Brazil
1990 Salvatore Schillachi Italy

World Cup Player of Tournament Odds, Tips and Free Bets

On each occasion the award has gone to a well regarded player generally considered as one of the best in the world in that position. In the last four World Cups it has gone to a player who has played in the World Cup Final, the exception to that was in 1990 when Schillachi played for Italy (who finished third) and he was the Golden Boot that year.

This really narrows things down for us and means there are only about four or five possible winners, forget Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal are not going to do well enough for him to win it.

There is one exception who could win it without his team reaching the semi final, that is Argentina’s Lionel Messi. Argentina are lucky they have an easy draw as under Diego Maradona they have been very poor, they should still reach the quarter finals though and that might give Lionel Messi just about enough time to stake his claim.

Apart from Messi it is best to concentrate on players from the three World Cup Betting Odds favourites, Spain, Brazil and England.

The fact that strikers have won three of the last five awards means that David Villa (much better than Fernando Torres away from home), Luis Fabiano and Wayne Rooney must all be seriously considered. All three will score plenty of goals and between those players we probably also have the Golden Boot. Given that Luis Fabiano has to play in the Group of Death the best two bets out of the strikers at the World Cup appear to be David Villa and Wayne Rooney. Both teams have easy groups too and they should get plenty of goals.

It is surprising that only one midfielder has won the award over the past twenty years and that was one of the best footballers ever. The most likely midfielder to win the award is Spain’s Xavi but it is also worth giving consideration to Kaka. The problem for Kaka is that there are so many other talented Brazilians he may not stand out to the decision makers who vote on the award.

It is very tough to win the award as a defender so best to skip them and Oliver Kahn was a bit of a freak performance when he won it, don’t bet on a goalie winning the Golden Ball Award in 2010.

In order we rate the best Player of the Tournament bets to be:

1. David Villa
2. Wayne Rooney
3. Xavi 

Latest odds for the 2010 World Cup Golden Ball

Lionel Messi - Best odds 6/1 with Ladbrokes - Get a £20 free bet from Ladbrokes
Xavi - Best odds 16/1 with Bet 365 - Get £200 in free bets from Bet 365
Wayne Rooney - Best odds 14/1 with Sportingbet - Get a £25 free bet from Sportingbet
Kaka - Best odds 18/1 with Sportingbet - Get a £25 free bet from Sportingbet
David Villa - Best odds 20/1 with Ladbrokes - Get a £20 free bet from Ladbrokes
Fernando Torres - Best odds 20/1 with Sportingbet - Get a £25 free bet from Sportingbet
Ronalso - Best odds 20/1 with Ladbrokes - Get a £20 free bet from Ladbrokes