No invented picks and no invented probabilities — the award is the TSG's call, not a stat line. What each candidate verifiably did at this World Cup is below.
The teenager at the heart of the world champions' attack and the tournament's breakout star. Spain won all 5 knockout matches on the way to the trophy, capped by the 1-0 final win over Argentina.
Yamal player page →The anchor of a champion defence that conceded just 1 goal across 5 knockout wins — 4 clean sheets, including a final shutout of Argentina at MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford.
Already confirmed as the tournament's best goalkeeper: 4 clean sheets in 5 knockout wins for the champions. A Golden Glove winner taking the Golden Ball too would be historically rare — but he is in the conversation.
Golden Glove page →The strongest challenger from outside the champions: Golden Boot winner with 10 goals in 8 matches, top of the verified scorers board. France fell short of the final, which historically weighs against non-finalists.
Golden Boot board →Captained Argentina to the final with 8 goals on the scorers board, losing 1-0 to Spain after extra time. Precedent matters here: the Golden Ball has gone to a beaten finalist before — Messi himself won it from the losing side in 2014.
Rodri won the 2026 World Cup Golden Ball, FIFA's award for the best player of the tournament, as decided by FIFA's Technical Study Group.
Kylian Mbappé (France) won the 2026 World Cup Golden Boot with 10 goals in 8 matches. The full final top-scorer board is at /world-cup-2026/golden-boot.
Unai Simón (Spain) won the 2026 World Cup Golden Glove as the tournament's best goalkeeper — 4 clean sheets in 5 knockout wins for the champions, conceding just 1. Full breakdown at /world-cup-2026/golden-glove.
Spain won the 2026 World Cup, beating Argentina 1-0 after extra time in the final at MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford on 19 July 2026. The full tournament wrap — both roads to the final, the knockout numbers and the model's graded record — is at /world-cup-2026/winner and /world-cup-2026/tournament-review.
The Golden Ball is FIFA's official award for the best player of the World Cup, decided by FIFA's Technical Study Group and announced after the final. It is separate from the Golden Boot (top scorer, decided purely by goals) and the Golden Glove (best goalkeeper). Recent winners: Lionel Messi (2022 and 2014), Luka Modrić (2018), Diego Forlán (2010), Zinedine Zidane (2006).
Match-by-match predictions, captain picks for World Cup Fantasy, likely scorers, and the first FPL 2026/27 differentials to watch. Same engine that powers our Premier League tools, pointed at the world's biggest pre-season.
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Onside’s engine called 67 of 80 decisive World Cup matches — 84%, and 24 of 28 in the knockouts. It is now pointed at Fantasy Premier League, where it scores 0.86 mean absolute error across 51,518 out-of-sample predictions.
Match-by-match predictions, captain picks for World Cup Fantasy, likely scorers, and the first FPL 2026/27 differentials to watch. Same engine that powers our Premier League tools, pointed at the world's biggest pre-season.
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v5 engine · 51k+ OOS predictions · MAE 0.86. Captain picks, squad optimiser, AI Coach, set-piece intel — the production Premier League tools.