List of all man of the match award winners in the FIFA World Cup final

The man of the match award was first given out in 2002 to the best player in the game.

Although the man of the match award did not exist in the 1990s, it came to light in 2002 when FIFA created another honour that is directly awarded after the game to the player who is recognized as the finest performer in the match. Since 2002, many players have received this accolade. Lionel Messi has won the most, with 10 FIFA World Cup man of the match awards, while Cristiano has won seven.

In 2002, the "Man of the Match" award was introduced. The name was changed to "Player of the Match" in 2022. While the technical committee chose the first two editions, from 2010, Player of the Match has been decided by an online poll on FIFA's website.

The award is sponsored by Budweiser hence, it is commercially dubbed as "Budweiser Player of the Match.

Rivaldo was the first player to receive the man of the match award in 2002, and the only player to earn it the most times that year (3). Andrea Pirlo equalled Rivaldo's most MOTM awards in 2006 with three - Harry Kane, Griezmann, Hazard, and Modric all had three in a single World Cup event.

Only Lionel Messi and Wesley Sneijder have received the most MOTM awards in the competition (4). And in this post, we have listed players who have won the award in the final since it first appeared in 2002.

FIFA World Cup final 2002: Germany 0-2 Brazil – Ronaldo

FIFA World Cup final 2006: Italy 5-3 France (pens) – Andrea Pirlo

FIFA World Cup final 2010: Netherlands 0-1 Spain – Andreas Iniesta

FIFA World Cup final 2014: Germany 1-0 Argentina – Mario Gotze

FIFA World Cup final 2018: France 4-2 Croatia – Antoine Griezmann

FIFA World Cup final 2022: Argentina 3(4)-3(2) France - Lionel Messi