Our team look at the awards markets for World Cup 2026, picking out some best bets for the Golden Ball, Young Player of the Tournament and Golden Glove.
Football betting tips: World Cup awards
1pt Pedri to win the Golden Ball at 25/1 (General)
2pts Bruno Fernandes to win the Golden Ball at 25/1 (General)
0.5pt Joao Neves to win the Golden Ball at 150/1 (General)
1pt Kobbie Mainoo to win Young Player of the Tournament at 50/1 (General)
2pts Diogo Costa to win the Golden Glove at 12/1 (William Hill)
Who will be Player of the Tournament and win the Golden Ball?
PEDRI should be a guaranteed starter for World Cup favourites Spain.
The heartbeat of the team, very easy on the eye and a La Liga winner with Barcelona this season, he can be backed generally at 25/1 TO WIN the GOLDEN BALL and that price looks huge. Lamine Yamal leads the betting but at the prices available, I’d rather take a swing at the midfield metronome especially with players of a similar ilk scooping up the accolade in the past five competitions, most noticeably, Luka Modric and Zinedine Zidane.
World Cup Golden Ball winners (nation's position)
- 2022 - Lionel Messi, Argentina (1st)
- 2018 - Luka Modric, Croatia (2nd)
- 2014 - Lionel Messi, Argentina (2nd)
- 2010 - Diego Forlan, Uruguay (4th)
- 2006 - Zinedine Zidane, France (2nd)
- 2002 - Oliver Kahn, Germany (2nd)
- 1998 - Ronaldo, Brazil (2nd)
- 1994 - Romario, Brazil (1st)
- 1990 - Salvatore Schillaci, Italy (3rd)
- 1986 - Diego Maradona, Arg (1st)
- 1982 - Paolo Rossi, Italy (1st)
Looking back at the 11 previous winners, it is also worth flagging four of them played for the winning nation, nine made the final and all of them made the semis.
La Roja are the shortest price of any nation to make the last four, to reach the final and go all the way.
When they won Euro 2024, Rodri won Player of the Tournament but given his injury issues, he isn’t a guaranteed starter this summer. Going back a little further, when Spain won back-to-back Euros in 2008 and 2012, Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta won the accolade.
If Spain can make a deep run as so many expect, Pedri has a great chance of winning the Golden Ball.
Portugal head into this tournament with arguably the best opportunity in their history to win a World Cup.
If they're to stand a chance of lifting the trophy BRUNO FERNANDES will be vital. The Manchester United captain arrives in North America after a sensational club season that has seen him scoop every individual award going, with it a little surprising to see him generally priced at 25/1 TO WIN THE GOLDEN BALL.
Under Roberto Martinez, who led them to the Nations League title last year, Portugal have become a strong, consistent team, helped by the fact they are blessed with incredible midfield quality.
Bernardo Silva and Vitinha are also priced between 20/1 and 33s in this market, and I wouldn't put anyone off covering the trio in anticipation of a deep run for Martinez's side. Ultimately though, Fernandes is in the form of life, so gets my vote.
There is a second Portuguese who makes it, though, with JOAO NEVES taken at 150/1 TO WIN THE GOLDEN BALL.
The midfielder has formed a wonderful partnership with Vitinha at PSG in recent seasons, something we're likely to see Martinez make use of at certain points this summer, though not all the time. He was desperately unlucky to miss out on Man of the Match to his compatriot in their Champions League final victory over Arsenal, with it a surprise he wasn't given the award for an outstanding display throughout the 120 minutes.
Neves' fitness and youth may very well come into its own in North America, with the 21-year-old well placed to cope with what are expected to be sweltering conditions; he is only a few months too old to be eligible for the young player of the tournament award, by the way.
Who will win Young Player of the Tournament?
This market is dominated by Spain's Lamine Yamal and France duo Desire Doue and Warren Zaire-Emery.
It opens things up for some bigger prices, with KOBBIE MAINOO advised at 50/1.
Similar to Neves, this is again backed despite the fact he is not a certain starter - more than that in this case, he is virtually certain not to be in the initial starting XI for his country, with England's midfield duo expected to be Declan Rice and Elliot Anderson. But it's a long tournament, and this was a selection I backed two years ago at 20/1 ahead of the Euros in the anticipation Mainoo would force himself into the team.
While England were far less settled in central midfield back then, I still expect Mainoo to have a serious impact in North America given the way he finished the season for Manchester United and at the prices he is worth chancing TO WIN YOUNG PLAYER OF THE TOURNAMENT.
Who will win the Golden Glove?
Introduced in 1994, initially as the Yashin Award, Michel Preud'homme was the first winner of what is now known as the Golden Glove despite Belgium being knocked out in the round of 16.
Since then five of the seven winners have been part of the triumphant team, with the two exceptions being Oliver Kahn in 2002, who also won the Golden Ball after dragging a terrible Germany side to the final, and Thibaut Courtois in 2018, whose Belgium side finished in third place.
With this award having the closest correlation to tournament winners than any of the other individual accolades, given my liking for Portugal this summer DIOGO COSTA is a smart bet TO WIN THE GOLDEN GLOVE at a standout price of 12/1.
The other starting goalkeepers for team's in the top six in the outright market - Argentina's Emi Martinez, Spain's Unai Simon, Brazil's Alisson Becker, France's Mike Maignan and England's Jordan Pickford - are priced between 4/1 and 15/2.
Put simply, COSTA's price is far too big.
More World Cup content from Sporting Life
- World Cup betting guide
- Group A: Mexico; South Africa; South Korea; Czechia
- Group B: Canada; Bosnia; Qatar; Switzerland
- Group C: Brazil; Morocco; Haiti; Scotland
- Group D: USA; Paraguay; Australia; Turkiye
- Group E: Germany; Curacao; Ivory Coast; Ecuador
- Group F: Netherlands; Japan; Sweden; Tunisia
- Group G: Belgium; Egypt; Iran; New Zealand
- Group H: Spain; Cape Verde; Saudi Arabia; Uruguay
- Group I: France; Senegal; Iraq; Norway
- Group J: Argentina; Algeria; Austria; Jordan
- Group K: Portugal; DR Congo; Uzbekistan; Colombia
- Group L: England; Croatia; Ghana; Panama
- Outright preview
- Golden Boot preview
- Specials preview
- FREE World Cup wallchart
- FREE World Cup sweepstake kit
- World Cup: All you need to know
- Fixtures, results and live scores
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