FIFA U20 World Cup: List of all Golden Ball winners

South American youngsters have dominated the list

The FIFA U-20 Global Cup is a biennial football global cup event for men's national squads from FIFA member countries with participants below the age restriction of 20. Since the first edition in 1977, when Tunisia sponsored it under the event's name FIFA World Youth Championship through 2005, the contest has traditionally been held on a biennial basis. The name was modified to its current form in 2007.

The FIFA Men's Under-20 World Cup is marketed as "the competition of tomorrow's superstars." The official player of the FIFA U20 World Cup honour has previously gone to Lionel Messi, Paul Pogba, and Diego Maradona. Erling Haaland led all scorers at the 2019 edition. Ukraine are the defending champion after taking home the trophy at the 2019 edition in Poland.

The FIFA U-20 World Cup 2023 is being currently played in Argentina. Italy and Uruguay have made it to the final match.

In the past, the event has served as a showcase for players such as Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi to demonstrate their abilities before taking on the senior competition.

List of all Golden Ball winners in U20 FIFA World Cup

1977 Tunisia: Vladimir Bessonov (USSR)1979 Japan: Diego Maradona (Argentina)1981 Australia: Romulus Gabor (Romania)1983 Mexico: Geovani (Brazil)1985 Soviet Union: Paulo Silas (Brazil)1987 Chile: Robert Prosinečki (Yugoslavia)1989 Saudi Arabia: Bismarck (Brazil)1991 Portugal: Emílio Peixe (Portugal)1993 Australia: Adriano (Brazil)1995 Qatar: Ciao (Brazil)

1997 Malaysia: Nicolás Olivera (Uruguay)1999 Nigeria: Seydou Keita (Mali)2001 Argentina: Javier Saviola (Argentina)2003 United Arab Emirates: Ismail Matar (UAE)2005 Netherlands: Lionel Messi (Argentina)2007 Canada: Sergio Agüero (Argentina)2009 Egypt: Dominic Adiyiah (Ghana)2011 Colombia: Henrique Almeida (Brazil)2013 Turkey: Paul Pogba (France)2015 New Zealand: Adama Traoré (Mali)2017 South Korea: Dominic Solanke (England)2019 Poland: Lee Kang-in (South Korea)2023 Argentina: Cesare Casadei (Italy)

Last updated on 12 June 2023