[ML'Amour]

Forlan wins Golden Ball
as the Best Player

Uruguay's Diego Forlán won the best player of the World Cup award after lighting up the tournament with some wonderful goals that helped his team become South America's only semi-finalist.

The striker won praise for his performance on the pitch and friendly attitude off it where he always made time to sign autographs and talk with fans or journalists.

Forlán took 23.4% in the Golden Ball poll organised by Fifa and voted for by journalists. Holland's Wesley Sneijder was second with 21.8% and Spain's David Villa third on 16.9%.

All three got five goals, making them joint top scorers along with Germany's Thomas Müller. Müller took the Golden Boot award given to the top scorer under new Fifa rules, using assists and number of minutes played as a tie-breaker. The German was also named best young player.

Thomas Müller wins Golden Boot
and the best young player award

Thomas Müller has admitted he never believed he would win the Golden Boot before the World Cup began.

Germany's 20-year-old forward, who only made his international debut in March, scored five times in South Africa to clinch the award. David Villa, Wesley Sneijder and Diego Forlan also scored five goals, but the Müller's three assists saw him edge out the trio.

"This is just incredible for a newcomer to the World Cup. If anyone had told me I'd end on eight scorer points, I'd have said they were kidding me," Müller said on Bayern's official website. "It's an honour of course, but at the end of the day, I'd rather have had the World Cup itself."

Müller's performances in helping Germany reach the semi-finals in South Africa also won him the best young player award.

"It's a huge honour to be part of a group including the likes of Pele, Franz Beckenbauer, Michael Owen and the most recent winner, Lukas Podolski," added Müller. "For me personally, it's terrific confirmation of the work I've put in over the last year. I'm delighted my great run has continued here, and I've really enjoyed it too. The honour will be with me for all time, and it's a wonderful memento too."

Iker Casillas won the Golden Glove as the top goalkeeper.

Spain skipper Iker Casillas has been named the best goalkeeper of the 2010 World Cup.

The FIFA Technical Study Group picked the Real Madrid shot-stopper after some outstanding performances which inspired Spain to win their first-ever World Cup trophy.

Previous winners of this award are Gianluigi Buffon (Italy) in 2006, Oliver Khan (Germany) 2002 and Fabien Barthez (France) in 1998.

The 29-year-old Casillas made several saves against the Netherlands in Sunday's final, which his side won 1-0. One of the saves was a point-blank block which denied Arjen Robben, who was clean on goal.

He also saved a penalty against Paraguay in a quarter-final match as Spain won 2-1 to reach the last four.

Casillas made history when he became the first goalkeeper since Italy's Dino Zoff in 1982 to lead a team to World Cup glory.

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Ref:APress :)