Best Young Player Award
The Best Young Player award was awarded for the first time at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany and given to Germany's Lukas Podolski. 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 organized a survey on the Internet for users to choose the "best young player" of the World Cup, between 1958 and 2002, named the best young player of each tournament. With 61% of the overall vote, the winner was Pelé, who finished ahead of the Peruvian Teófilo Cubillas, the best young player at Mexico 1970, and England's Michael Owen, who reached similar heights at France 98.
| World Cup | Young Player | Age |
|---|---|---|
| 1958 Sweden | Pelé | 17 |
| 1962 Chile | Flórián Albert | 20 |
| 1966 England | Franz Beckenbauer | 20 |
| 1970 Mexico | Teófilo Cubillas | 21 |
| 1974 West Germany | Władysław Żmuda | 20 |
| 1978 Argentina | Antonio Cabrini | 20 |
| 1982 Spain | Manuel Amoros | 21 |
| 1986 Mexico | Enzo Scifo | 20 |
| 1990 Italy | Robert Prosinečki | 21 |
| 1994 United States | Marc Overmars | 21 |
| 1998 France | Michael Owen | 18 |
| 2002 Korea/Japan | Landon Donovan | 20 |
The Best Young Player Award was first awarded in 2006.
| World Cup | Best Young Player Award | Age |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 Germany | Lukas Podolski | 21 |
| 2010 South Africa | Thomas Müller | 20 |
Read more about this topic: FIFA World Cup Awards
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