FIFA U17 World Cup: List of all Golden Ball winners

The award is handed to the best player at the tournament

The FIFA U17 World Cup is an international football world tournament for male players below the age of 17 that is run by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).

It was first known as the FIFA U-16 World Championship and then renamed to U-17 in 1991 and to its present name in 2007. Brazil is the reigning champion after taking home its fourth trophy from the 2019 competition there.

There have been 16 iterations of the young competition since the first FIFA U-17 World Cup took place in China. The competition, which is played every two years, provides scouts with an excellent opportunity to find the upcoming star in international football.

With 24 nations expected to compete and FIFA still to name the U-17 World Cup hosts in October. It remains to be seen if the next huge star will be born this year, although a number of these players who earned the Most Valuable Player honour in previous competitions never achieved major success. We examine five Golden Ball winners who achieved success.

List of Golden Ball winners at U17 World Cup

1985 China: William1987 Canada: Philip Osundu1989 Scotland: James Will1991 Italy: Nii Lamptey1993 Japan: Daniel Addo1995 Ecuador: Mohammed Al-Kathiri1997 Egypt: Sergio Santamaría1999 New Zealand: Landon Donovan2001 Trinidad and Tobago: Florent Sinama Pongolle

2003 Finland: Cesc Fàbregas2005 Peru: Anderson2007 South Korea: Toni Kroos2009 Nigeria: Sani Emmanuel2011 Mexico: Julio Gómez2013 United Arab Emirates: Kelechi Iheanacho2015 Chile: Kelechi Nwakali2017 India: Phil Foden2019 Brazil: Gabriel Veron