Spain didn’t just win the World Cup on Sunday night. They came close to cleaning out the entire trophy cabinet.
After beating Argentina 1-0 in the final at New York New Jersey Stadium, La Roja walked away with the Golden Ball, the Golden Glove, and the Best Young Player award, on top of the actual trophy. The only major individual prize that slipped away from them was the Golden Boot, and even that one went down to the wire.
Here’s the full breakdown of who won what, and why.
Golden Boot: Kylian Mbappé (10 goals)
Mbappé did it again. Four years after topping the scoring charts in Qatar, the French forward finished the 2026 tournament with 10 goals in eight games, enough to hold off Lionel Messi, who came into the final weekend just two behind him.
It wasn’t settled until the very last games. Messi needed a hat-trick against Argentina’s opponents to force a tiebreak, or a brace to trigger one on assists. Neither happened. Meanwhile, Mbappé put the issue beyond doubt with a two-goal display in the third-place match against England on July 18, a game that finished 6-4 in England’s favour and turned into one of the most entertaining matches of the entire tournament.
France finished fourth, which says something about how individual brilliance and team success don’t always move together. Mbappé leaves the tournament as the first man in men’s or women’s World Cup history to win back-to-back Golden Boots.
Messi ends his final World Cup with eight goals and four assists at 39 years old. Behind them, Jude Bellingham and Erling Haaland both finished on seven, with Harry Kane and Ousmane Dembélé on six.
Golden Ball: Rodri
This is the one that split opinion. Messi arrived at the final with a case for the Golden Ball built on three straight finals for Argentina and a career that basically demands the honour. Mbappé had the goals and the assists. His teammate Michael Olise set a new World Cup record for assists in a single tournament. None of them won it.
FIFA gave the Golden Ball to Rodri instead, and once you watch how Spain played, it’s not a shock. Rodri wasn’t the player racking up the eye-catching numbers. He was the one making Spain’s whole system function, dictating tempo, breaking up attacks before they started, and generally doing the unglamorous work that doesn’t show up on a highlight reel but wins finals.
He already had a Ballon d’Or on his shelf from 2024. This makes him the 11th player in history to win the World Cup, the Champions League, and the Ballon d’Or. That’s an exclusive list, and Rodri is now firmly on it.
Silver Ball went to Messi. Bronze Ball went to Mbappé, so France’s forward walked away with both a Golden Boot and a Bronze Ball, a genuinely rare individual haul for a team that didn’t reach the final.
Golden Glove: Unai Simón
Spain conceded once in seven matches at this World Cup. Once. Their goalkeeper, Unai Simón, was the man behind that number, and along the way he set a new World Cup record by going 650 consecutive minutes without letting a goal in.
That kind of defensive record usually gets attention only in retrospect, once a team’s already lifted the trophy. But Simón’s Golden Glove was never really in doubt heading into the final. Seven clean sheets across a World Cup is not something that happens by accident.
Best Young Player: Pau Cubarsí
Cubarsí is 19 years old. He spent the tournament playing centre-back for a Spain side that conceded one goal in the entire competition, which tells you most of what you need to know about how he performed.
Composed, rarely rattled, comfortable stepping into midfield when Spain needed an extra body on the ball. For a teenager, playing that position at that level on that stage without looking out of his depth is genuinely impressive, and FIFA’s judges agreed.
FIFA Fair Play Award: Netherlands
The Dutch didn’t get the World Cup run they wanted. They topped Group F but were knocked out in the round of 32, ending their tournament earlier than most inside their camp would have hoped. Off the back of that disappointment, FIFA recognised them with the Fair Play award, handed to the team with the best disciplinary record across the competition.
Full List of 2026 World Cup Award Winners
- Golden Ball (Best Player): Rodri (Spain)
- Silver Ball: Lionel Messi (Argentina)
- Bronze Ball: Kylian Mbappé (France)
- Golden Boot (Top Scorer): Kylian Mbappé (France) – 10 goals
- Golden Glove (Best Goalkeeper): Unai Simón (Spain)
- Best Young Player: Pau Cubarsí (Spain)
- FIFA Fair Play Award: Netherlands
Spain’s second World Cup title arrived with a squad built around control rather than star power up front, and the awards list reflects exactly that. Three of the six individual honours went to Spanish players, and it’s hard to argue against any of them once you look at the numbers behind Spain’s run: one goal conceded, a record-breaking goalkeeping streak, and a teenage defender who barely put a foot wrong.
For Messi, the tournament ends without a third World Cup and without a third Golden Ball, though not without dignity. Argentina’s coach Lionel Scaloni called him the best to ever play the game in a tear-filled post-match reaction, and whatever the trophy count says, few would argue with that sentiment after watching him drag Argentina to a third straight final at an age when most players have long since retired.
