The First ball to have a name was the Telstar in the Mexico World Cup in 1970. The Buckminster type design with 32 Black & White panels was supposed to make it more visible in the B&W Television of the day that had covered the event live. Oh yes, the ball was made by Adidas.
More than a million soccer fans participated in the contest that led to the naming of the Brazuka – the ball that this world cup is being played with.
The Golden Ball award is presented to the best player at each FIFA World Cup finals, with a shortlist drawn up by the FIFA technical committee and the winner voted for by representatives of the media. Those who finish as runners-up in the vote receive the Silver Ball and Bronze Ball awards as the second and third most outstanding players in the tournament respectively. The Golden Boot Award on the other hand (or is it the other foot?) goes to the top goal scorer of the FIFA World Cup. It was introduced at the 1930 FIFA World Cup.
1970: Mexico: Telstar. Pele. Gerd Muller.
1974: West Germany: Telstar Duralast. John Cruyff. Grzegorz Lato.
1978: Argentina: Tango Duralast. Mario Kempes. Mario Kempes.
1982: Spain: Tango Espana. Paolo Rossi. Paolo Rossi.
1986: Mexico: Azteca. Diego Maradona. Gary Lineker.
1990: Italy: Etrusco. Salvatore Schillaci. Salvatore Schillaci
1994: USA: Questra. Romário. Joint Winners: Oleg Salenko, Hristo Stoichkov.
1998: France: Tricolore. Ronaldo. Davor Šuker.
2002: Korea-Japan: Fevernova. Oliver Kahn. Ronaldo.
2006: Germany : Teamgeist. Zinedine Zidane. Miroslav Klose.
2010: South Africa : Jabulani. Diego Forlán. Thomas Müller.
2014: Brazil: Brazuca.