Qatar 2022: What awards are given at the World Cup and what does each one mean?

The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar is the most important sporting event of the year. For many players, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to lead their countries to glory and, individually, to show what they're made of. A remarkable performance in the tournament could be the key to reach a spot in the top-clubs of Europe. 

In the soccer realm, one might say that the Ballon d'Or is the greatest individual award for a player. Also, at least in the last few years, FIFA's The Best awards have arrived into that conversation. Nevertheless, those are annual awards which, in most cases, recognize players' performances with National Teams, but mainly at the club level.

So, as in every major tournament, the FIFA World Cup has its own specific awards to distinguish brilliant individual performances. The dream is to hoist the World Cup trophy as a team, but any other distinction is also of great importance for a player's career. Read here to find out all those prizes and what do they mean.

Which are the individual awards for players in the World Cup?

After the conclusion of the World Cup, FIFA delivers many individual awards. The Golden Ball goes to the Best Player of the tournament, the Silver Ball to the second-best player and the Bronze Ball is for the third best player. A panel of experts analyzes every performance during the World Cup and votes. With that same procedure, there's a Man of the Match award for every game. 

The Golden Boot is won by the player who scores more goals during the tournament. The Silver Boot is for the second-best scorer and the Bronze Boot goes to the third-best scorer. If two or more players have the same amount of goals, the number of assists becomes the tiebreaker. In 2018, that's how Antoine Griezmann won the Silver Boot (4 goals, 2 assists) over Romelu Lukaku (4 goals, one asisst).

The Golden Glove is the award for the Best Goalkeeperduring the tournament and there's also a FIFA Young Player Award (under 21 years of age). Immediately after the World Cup ends, fans have the chance to vote online for the Best Goal of the Tournament. In a collective level, FIFA also gives the Fair Play Trophy to the National Team with best behaviour and less cards. As a requirement, that team had to advance to the Round of 16.