Johannesburg - Newly-crowned world champions Spain emerged the biggest winners at the just-ended FIFA 2010 Soccer World Cup. Apart from being the overall winners of the historic tournament, the Europeans also won the FIFA Fair Play Award.
The accolade is awarded to the team with the best fair play record according to a points system and criteria established by the FIFA Committee for Fair Play and Social Responsibility. The team that displays the greatest sportsmanship and whose on-and off-pitch behaviour is the best during the competition is announced as the Fair Play winner at the end of the event by the Technical Study Group (TSG).
The team also featured prominently in the individual awards on offer. Among the winners were goalkeeper and captain Iker Casillas who won the Golden Glove Award. The accolade recognises the top goalkeeper of the tournament based on the players performance throughout the final competition.
Striker David Villa was joint topscorer with Thomas Muller of Germany and Diego Forlan of Uruguay as Netherlands Wesley Sneidjer. He however had to settle for the Silver Boot Award for second-best. While the quartet was tied on five goals, the German scooped the Golden Boot as he had more assists.
The rampant Villa was also the Bronze Ball winner after coming third to Golden Ball winner Forlan and Sneidjer who won Silver.
This award goes to the outstanding player of the competition as voted by the members of the media until the end of the Final through the FIFA Media Channel.
Meanwhile, Muller won the Hyundai Best Young Player Award , which was Selected by the FIFA TSG this award goes to the most outstanding young player (born on or after 1 January 1989) at the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa.
Post published in: News