Who are the World Cup Best Young Player Award winners?
History has witnessed that the FIFA World Cup often throws up some exciting young talents who more often than not go on to make a mark in their career. The FIFA Best Young Player award is given to the best player aged 21 or younger at every edition of the World Cup since 2006.
However, in 2009, FIFA chose to retrospectively recognize the standout young performers from the 1958 World Cup to the 2002 edition - through an online fan poll on its website. But since 2006, the FIFA Technical Study Group is responsible to choose the winner of the award.
Brazilian legend Pele was named the winner of the award in 1958 retrospectively. Since he was just 17 at the time, Pele would have been the youngest to achieve the feat to date.
Though the likes of Ronaldo and Messi haven't won this award, there have been some notable names who have done so. Let us now take a look at all the winners since 1958.
Year | Winner | Age | Matches Played | Goals Scored |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1958 | Pele (1958) | 17 | 4 | 6 |
1962 | Florian Albert (Hungary) | 20 | 3 | 4 |
1966 | Franz Beckenbauer (Germany) | 20 | 6 | 4 |
1970 | Teofillo Cubillas (Peru) | 20 | 4 | 5 |
1974 | Wladyslaw Zmuda (Poland) | 20 | 7 | 0 |
1978 | Antonio Cabrini (Italy) | 20 | 7 | 0 |
1982 | Manuel Amoros (France) | 21 | 5 | 0 |
1986 | Enzo Schifo (Belgium) | 20 | 7 | 2 |
1990 | Robert Prosinecki (Croatia) | 21 | 3 | 1 |
1994 | Marc Overmars (Netherlands) | 20 | 5 | 0 |
1998 | Michael Owen (England) | 18 | 4 | 2 |
2002 | Landon Donovan (USA) | 20 | 5 | 2 |
2006 | Lukas Podolski (Germany) | 21 | 7 | 3 |
2010 | Thomas Muller (Germany) | 20 | 6 | 5 |
2014 | Paul Pogba (France) | 21 | 6 | 1 |
2018 | Kylian Mbappe (France) | 19 | 7 | 4 |