The 2014 World Cup finally ended with Germany emerging victorious against Argentina in the finals, and Netherlands claiming the third place after beating hosts Brazil.
The tournament, which was a mixture of some raw emotions including frustration, excitement, disappointment, humiliation and elation, saw the emergence of some brilliant new players, while the experienced ones also made their mark in the competition.
FIFA, as always, awarded the individual accolades to the players for their performances in the 2014 World Cup. Here is the complete list of the 2014 World Cup Award nominees and winners:
Golden Ball
The most prestigious award of the World Cup, the Golden Ball, which has been won by the likes of Brazil striker Ronaldo (1998), Germany goalkeeper Oliver Kahn (2002), France midfielder Zinedine Zidane (2006) and Uruguay striker Diego Forlan (2010), is given to the player who has been consistent and put in some match winning performances for his side.
The FIFA technical committee shortlist five players and the representatives of the media cast their vote to the player of their choice. The winner and the two runners up are given the Golden, Silver and Bronze Ball respectively.
Here are the winners:
Adidas Golden Ball – Lionel Messi (Argentina)
Adidas Silver Ball – Thomas Muller (Germany)
Adidas Bronze Ball – Arjen Robben (Netherlands)
Other nominees: Neymar (Brazil) and James Rodriguez (Colombia)
Golden Boot
The Golden Boot is awarded to the player who scores the highest goals in the World Cup finals. If there is a tie, the award goes to the player with the highest assists.
If there is more than one player with the same amount of goals, the tie-breaker goes to the player who has contributed the most assists (with the FIFA Technical Study Group deciding whether an assist is to be counted as such). If there is still more than one player, the tie-breaker goes to the player who has played the least amount of time. Croatia's Davor Šuker (1998), Brazil's Ronaldo (2002), Germany's Miroslav Klose (2006) and Thomas Muller (2010) have won this awards in the past editions of the World Cup.
Here are the winners:
Adidas Golden Boot: James Rodriguez (Colombia) – 6 goals
Adidas Silver Boot: Thomas Muller (Germany) – 5 goals
Adidas Bronze Boot: Neymar (Brazil) – 4 goals
Runners-up: Lionel Messi – 4 goals, Robin van Persie – 4 goals
Golden Glove
The Golden Glove, which was known as the Yashin Award (in honour of the late Soviet Union goalkeeper Lev Yashin) before 2010, is awarded to the best goalkeeper of the tournament, as chosen by the FIFA Technical Study Group.
France's Fabien Barthez (1998), Germany's Oliver Kahn, Italy's Gianluigi Buffon (2006) and Spain's Iker Casillas (2010) have received this award in the past.
This year the award went to Germany's Manual Neuer.
Runners ups were Keylor Navas (Costa Rica) and Sergio Romero (Argentina)
Best Young Player:
The Young Player award was introduced in 2006 to acknowledge the impact made by young players (under the age of 21 years) in their debut World Cup.
Technical abilities such as skill, style and charisma along with hard work and fair play are taken into account as FIFA Technical Study Group chooses the best young player.
Germany's Lukas Podolski (2006) and Thomas Muller (2010) have won this award on previous occasions.
Winner: Paul Pogba (France)
Runners up: Memphis Depay (Netherlands) and Raphaël Varane (France)
FIFA Fair Play Award:
The FIFA Fair Play award is given to the teams with the best disciplinary record. However, only teams who have qualified out of the group stages are considered.
Belgium (2002), Brazil and Spain (2006), Spain (2010) have received this award on previous occasions.
This year's winners were Colombia, who only received five booking in the entire tournament.
