Golden Ball: Best player of the tournament – Diego Forlan – Uruguay

Uruguayan striker Diego Forlan was named the Best Player at the 2010 World Cup after he received the most votes from the accredited media representatives. The 31-year-old managed to score five goals in the tournament as he led his team to a fourth place finish, their best in 40 years. Forlan, who plays for Atletico Madrid in Spain, proved he could score from just about anywhere on the pitch from open play and set plays.

Silver Ball: Wesley Sneijder – Holland

Bronze Ball: David Villa – Spain

Golden Boot: Top scorer in the tournament – Thomas Mueller – Germany – 5 goals, 3 assists

Midfielder Thomas Mueller of Germany enjoyed his first-ever World Cup by leading it in scoring with five goals and three assists. The 20-year-old Bayern Munich player finished level on goals with Diego Forlan of Uruguay, David Villa of Spain, and Wesley Sneijder of Holland, but captured the award due to his three assists.

Silver Boot: David Villa – Spain – 5 goals, 1 assist

Bronze Boot: Wesley Sneijder – Holland – 5 goals, 1 assist

Golden Glove: Best goalkeeper in the tournament – Iker Casillas – Spain

The Spanish keeper only let two goals in during the tournament, one of them coming in the team’s first game against Switzerland. Considering Spain won the Cup with a record-low eight goals in the event and six of their wins were by one goal, Casillas’ saves were very important, especially his diving block on a penalty kick by Oscar Cardozo of Paraguay in the quarter-finals. The 29-year-old Real Madrid keeper and Spain captain was playing in his third World Cup tournament.

Hyundai Best Young Player: Thomas Muller – Germany

The 2010 World Cup was a dream come true for Mueller as he added the best young player award to the Golden Boot. The only thing missing of course was the World Cup. He also missed the semi final against Spain due to suspension after receiving two yellow cards in his previous games. Mueller shows tremendous poise, positioning, playmaking and finishing and he’s only 20 years old.

FIFA Fair Play Award: Spain

Spain received only eight yellow cards in the tournament and five of those came in the final game. North Korea had only two yellows, but played only three matches.

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At the moment, Spain striker David Villa and Holland midfielder each have five and will of course be facing each other in the final on Sunday. However, close behind them are striker Diego Forlan of Uruguay and striker Miroslav Klose and midfielder Thomas Mueller of Germany with four each. These three players will be taking to the field in the third-place game on Saturday. Striker Luis Suarez of Uruguay has an outside chance with three goals. Suarez and Mueller each missed a game in the tournament due to a suspension for cards.

Sportsbook.com offers good odds on who will win the Golden Boot, Miroslav Klose to win for 5.50 (+450) is an interesting bet as there might be more goals in the match for 3rd place.

Wesley Sneidjer – Holland – Five goals

The 26-year-old Sneidjer has proved to be one of the worlds’ top players with his World Cup performance so far. He has five goals on 22 shots and the five-foot-seven inch midfielder has managed to head one in as well against the giant defence of Brazil. Sneidjer, who plays for Inter Milan in Italy, is excellent from long range as well as in the box as his powerful shots usually find the target. He’s also a fine playmaker. One of his goals was originally awarded as an own goal by Brazil’s Felipe Melo, but was later credited to Sneijder.

David Villa – Spain – Five goals

The 28-year-old Villa, who plays for Barcelona in Spain, has been deadly in the tournament so far and has scored five of his team’s seven goals. He also had a penalty kicked saved by Honduras and has had several other excellent scoring chances. Villa is a smooth striker who possesses a lot of finesse. He’s also dangerous from a distance, but scores the majority of his goals in close.

Miroslav Klose – Germany – Four goals

The 32-year-old Polish-born striker Miroslav Klose might have more incentive than anyone here as his next goal will tie him with Ronaldo of Brazil for the most World Cup goals ever with 15. He has scored five in each of the last two World Cups. Klose, who plays for Bayern Munich in Germany, is a powerful forward who scores most of his goals from close range through hard work.

Thomas Mueller – Germany – Four goals

The 20-year old Mueller has surprised a lot of people during the tournament with his poise and excellent finishing. The midfielder, who plays for German club Bayern Munich, adds a fine scoring touch to the team as he’s always in the right place at the right time in front of the net. He might have scored more if he didn’t miss the semi final against Spain. Mueller has his four goals on just eight shots on net.

Diego Forlan- Uruguay- Four goals

For those who have followed the 31-year-old striker’s career, they won’t be surprised at Forlan’s performance. He’s proved over the years he knows exactly where the net is, from in close and afar. Forlan, who plays for Atletico Madrid in Spain, has teamed up with fellow striker Luis Suarez to form one of the best scoring duos in the tournament.

Miroslav Klose

While winning the World Cup is definitely Klose’s top priority, he also realizes he’s getting close to the World Cup record for total goals in tournament games. Ronaldo of Brazil holds the record with 15, while Klose is within range at 12, and is level with Brazilian legend Pele. The 32-year-old Klose, who was actually born in Poland, has scored two goals so far in this year’s event.

The striker is playing in his third World Cup and scored five goals in each of the previous two tournaments. He’s the only player in South Africa at the moment who has a realistic shot of equalling Ronaldo’s record at this year’s Cup.

Klose won the golden boot award for most goals at the 2006 World Cup in Germany and he realizes he has a good chance to add to his total in South Africa. He said if he can match his last two finals appearances he’ll catch up with Ronaldo, but it will be a difficult task, especially with Argentina next in line for the Germans.

In recent interviews it appeared Klose was close to retiring from the national team, but he states he’d like to play at the European Championship in the Ukraine and Poland in 2012. He admits this is due to his Polish heritage and because he has relatives living there and his love for the people and the country.

Klose didn’t have the greatest of seasons with Bayern Munich in the German Bundesliga this year as he didn’t see a lot of action and managed only three league goals. However, he’s reacquired his scoring touch at just the right time to help Germany go for their fourth World Cup triumph.

With stars like Lionel Messi, Kaka, Fernando Torres, David Villa, Luis Fabiano and his old team mate Cristiano Ronaldo all looking to shine at this summer’s football spectacle, Rooney is keen to show the world he is the best there is.

Rooney talked to BBC Sport at Park Lane’s Grosvenor House Hotel, on a high from receiving the Professional Footballer’s Association’s Players’ Player of the Year Award. Rooney won the award as a result of his high goalscoring record in the past year and the quality of his goals, 32 of them in the season for United, seeing off tough competition for the prize in the form of Chelsea’s Didier Drogba, who will be captaining the Ivory Coast in the World Cup, and Cesc Fabregas of Arsenal and World Cup favourites Spain.

Wayne Rooney spoke of his desire to outshine the world’s top stars at the World Cup 2010, and added that he felt England did have the squad to win it.

There had been some doubts about his fitness, with a punishing Premiership and European season putting strain on his groin, knee and ankle, which his club have termed is merely “fatigue”. Rooney promised, with confidence, that he will be on form for the World Cup.

Seemingly relishing the opportunity to share the stage with all the other players at the top of their game, Rooney just has to see out the rest of the Premiership season and then begin preparing for the greatest football competition on Earth.

Rooney is not a player who places too much focus on personal triumph and accolades, and is clearly very much a team man, but with this desire to shine in the World Cup, the odds of 12/1 for him winning the Golden Boot and 33/1 for the double on him and England lifting the cup make an interesting bet.

In other news from the PFA awards, resolute England manager Fabio Capello will have been pleased to see goalkeeper Joe Hart and Aston Villa’s James Milner both chosen alongside Rooney for the PFA’s star IX. Milner, who may well take the place of injured Aaron Lennon in Capello’s starting line-up, was also awarded Young Player of the Year.

Wayne Rooney has had a very impressive career, making his debut in a major international tournament in Euro 2004 at the age of 18. He scored two goals against Switzerland to become the youngest player in the history of the competition to get a goal, though this record was broken a mere four days later.

Rooney was also at one time England’s youngest ever international player and goal scorer, though Theo Walcott has since taken that accolade.

Other personal achievements for the Manchester United and former Everton striker include BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year in 2002, Professional Footballers Association (PFA) Young Player of the Year in 2005 and 2006, and the PFA Fans Player of the Year, also in 2006. With Manchester United he has also won the Premiership for three consecutive years and the UEFA Champions League. There is almost certainly room on his trophy shelf for a World Cup Golden Boot too, though.

Despite having played in the 2006 World Cup, Rooney has not yet managed to score his first World Cup goal. This is probably due to the much discusses metatarsal injury that many feared would cause him to miss that competition altogether. This time around, Rooney is going to be hungry for the glory he missed out on four years ago, and hopefully once he breaks his World Cup duck the goals will keep on coming for him.

Doubles bets for the outright winner with Wayne Rooney as top scorer in the competition are quite a varying market. It definitely pays to compare the bookies if you want to gamble on these scenarios. For Rooney for the Golden Boot with England as champions Sky Bet, Blue Square and Paddy Power are all offering 33-1, but Betfred and William Hill offer 25-1 and Ladbrokes are again, the shortest odds at just 16-1 for the same bet, which shows how much of a difference shopping for the best price can make.

Backing Rooney as top goalscorer with favourites Spain winning the cup is 66-1 with Paddy Power, who will offer you the same price for a double with Rooney and Brazil.

The longest odds currently available for Robinho, who is currently on loan from Premiership side Manchester City to his old club Santos back in Brazil, are a staggering 50-1 from bwin. Other bookmakers’ offerings vary, with Betfred, Blue Square and 888sport giving 33-1, the shortest, and Ladbrokes, Eurobet and William Hill in between with 40-1 on this bet.

Robinho’s transfer to Manchester City from Real Madrid received more publicity than any other movement in the 2008 summer transfer window. With the player widely expected to join Chelsea, a surprise last minute deal with Man City surprised everyone, including it seems, Robinho himself, who in a press conference after the arrangement had been made, famously slipped up and said an offer had been accepted from Chelsea, rather than City.

With Man City under new ownership, the wealthiest in the Premiership, and trying to build up a team fit to compete with the famous “big four” and in Europe, Robinho found himself slipping down the Manchester City pecking order, where he only expected to play one in every two games. For this reason, he went on loan to Santos, in order to get as many games in as possible in preparation for the 2010 World Cup.

Robinho won the Golden Boot and Best Player award in the 2007 Copa America championship, where he scored six goals, three from a hat trick in the game against Chile, and was also on the Brazil team that won the 2009 Confederations Cup.

With competition from team mates Luis Fabiano and Kaka, among others, as well as favourites David Villa, Rooney, Lionel Messi et al, Robinho will need to work hard to repeat his Copa America achievements at the World Cup. With Brazil in the most difficult first round group, including Portugal and the Ivory Coast, who boast other Golden Boot contenders Cristiano Ronaldo and Didier Drogba, there is a big task ahead of the player. This probably explains the long odds for a man of his talents.

Best odds on a Robinho and Brazil double are 100-1 with Sky Bet. This goes down as low as 50-1 with 888sport, Betfred and Blue Square, with Ladbrokes and William Hill offering odds of 80-1.

Bookmakers are offering wildly varying odds for Klose to achieve a second World Cup Golden Boot, with the best offers at the time of writing being 33-1 from bwin and William Hill. Most major bookies are offering either 25 or 28, but Betfred believe this gamble to be worth a paltry 20-1.

At 31, Miroslav Klose is the oldest of the frontrunners to come out of the competition as the top goalscorer. With age comes experience, and Klose has already racked up 94 international appearances and 48 goals for Germany.

His club career has also been very impressive. Staying in the German Bundesliga for his whole career to date, he currently plays for top German side Bayern Munich, having transferred there from Werder Bremen in 2007. Last season, he was Bayern’s top scorer with 20 goals – despite spending a significant portion of the season out with injury. He was also the second highest scorer in the UEFA Champions League.

During Klose’s career with the national side, Germany have come second in the 2002 World Cup and the 2008 European Cup, and third in the 2006 World Cup where he won his Golden Boot. Odds suggest that Germany are expected to be close, but not close enough again in South Africa, with the team fifth favourites with average odds of 12-1 to finish the tournament as champions.

Germany are starting the competition in one of the trickier of the eight groups. Whilst not quite as tough on paper as Brazil’s “group of death”, Germany face Australia, Serbia and Ghana, all of whom have the potential to do well. Klose will need all of his skill and experience to notch up a good goal count in these three games.

Klose scored five goals to cement his Golden Boot win in 2006, but with tough competition from the likes of David Villa and Fernando Torres from favourites Spain, Luis Fabiano, Robinho and Kaka from Brazil, Lionel Messi from Argentina and of course England’s Wayne Rooney, it is very possible an even higher goal tally from a possible seven tournament games will be required to win the accolade this time around.

Backing Klose for the Golden Boot alongside Germany to win fetches odds of up to 125-1. This price is currently offered by Sky Bet, 888sport and Blue Square. The odds do go down as low as 66-1 with Betfred, currently offering the worst price on this double, and 80-1 from Ladbrokes and William Hill.

Throughout the market, Fabiano is ranked either fourth or fifth shortest odds with the bookmakers, with some being unable to pick between the Brazilian and Spain and Liverpool’s Fernando Torres.

The longest odds on offer at the time of writing for Luis Fabiano to attain the top goal scorer accolade are with Expekt.com, who are offering 13-1 (they are also offering 13-1 on Torres). The shortest are from Sportingbet, Tote and William Hill at 10-1, with most others offering 12-1 on the player.

Despite controversy during his early career with Sao Paolo where he was known for his, sometimes worryingly, aggressive approach (he received a three match ban for kicking a player during a match against River Plate), and a disappointing spell playing for Rennes in France, Fabiano has gone on to cement himself as one of the best strikers in the game after some impressive performances both for his country and Eurpoean clubs Porto and Sevilla.

He was the top goal scorer in the 2009 Confederations Cup with five goals. This equals the five that Miroslav Klose won to win the World Cup Golden Boot in 2006. A similar performance in South Africa could be enough for him to win this.

Whilst Brazil are second favourites to emerge as outright winners, one factor counting against Fabiano in the Golden Boot stakes is that compared with other front runners like Lionel Messi from Argentina, Rooney from England and David Villa and Torres from Spain, Fabiano’s Brazilian side has drawn an incredibly tough group.

Brazil’s Group G is definitely this year’s “group of death”, with opposition from Portugal and the Ivory Coast. With high scoring wins usually coming out of the group stages in a World Cup, Fabiano only has one weak team, North Korea, to play – racking up lots of goals against the teams boasting other Golden Boot contenders Christiano Ronaldo and Didier Drogba will not be an easy task.

A double bet for Fabiano to win the Golden Boot and Brazil to win can get you odds of an exciting 40-1 from Paddy Power. The majority of others offering this bet will give you 25-1, with Ladbrokes only paying out 18-1 on this.

For Fabiano to emerge as top goal scorer but with England winning the cup, Paddy Power will give you odds of 80-1.

Odds on the Golden Boot going to the Barcelona star who many believe to be the best current player in the world, range depending on your bookmaker. The longest odds on Messi at the time of writing appear to be 11-1, which a number of bookies including Extrabet, Sky Bet and Tote Sport will offer you. The worst price at present is 7-1 from bwin, the only major bookmaker aside from Betfred (with Messi at 8-1) who has Messi as their favourite over David Villa of Spain.

Ladbrokes, who seem to be offering some of the worst prices on favourites but some of the best moving further out, are surprisingly bang in the middle on this bet with 9-1.

Messi’s goal scoring abilities are in no doubt, and he has an almost endless list of accolades to his name, including three Young Player of the Year awards, the Player of the Year award last season (both awards issued by FIFAPro), European Player of the Year and UEFA Champions League Player of the year (with his Spanish club) in 2009, and, possibly most relevant here, he was the top goalscorer in both the 2005 U-20 World Cup and the 08-89 UEFA Champions League.

Just why the odds are slightly longer on Messi than on Villa probably have more to do with the teams than the men themselves. Villa’s Spain are the favourites to win, with Argentina fourth at around 8-1, but Spain do have – on paper at least – a much easier group round than Argentina.

Spain face Honduras, Chile and Switzerland, whereas Argentina have drawn Nigeria, South Korea and Greece. Once the cup moves into the knockout stages and games become more evenly matched, scorelines on the whole stay low. Bear in mind also that goals scored in penalty shootouts don’t count. This means that the key to the Golden Boot could be how many these players can put past the weaker opposition in the group stages.

Doubles bets on Messi as top goalscorer and a prediction of the outright winner are available from some bookmakers too. The best odds for Messi and Argentina appear to be 33-1 from William Hill or Bet365. Other offers are lower, with Ladbrokes and Betfred at 20-1.

Combining Messi for the Golden Boot with Spain as champions will get you 66-1, and with England 100-1, both from Paddy Power.

With all the front runners in the striker position, Kaka is one of the top midfielders in terms of odds to emerge as top goal scorer. With the best odds on offer for him being 40-1 from bwin, this is the same price as Ivory Coast captain and star Premiership striker Didier Drogba, and not far off of the odds for Klose, who won the Golden Boot at the last World Cup in 2006.

Other bookmakers are offering shorter odds, with the lowest being 22-1 from Tote Sport and a number of bookmakers including Stan James and 888sport offering 25-1. The majority are giving out 33-1 at the time of writing.

Kaka, who amazingly recovered from a potentially paralyzing spinal injury at the age of 18 to become one of the greatest players in modern football, already has a number of impressive achievements to his name.

In 2007 Kaka was FIFA World Player of the Year and Latin Sportsman of the Year, as well as achieving Champions League Top Scorer and Champions League Best Forward. He was Serie A Footballer of the Year in 2004 and 2007 while playing for AC Milan.

For Brazil, he was in the team that won the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan, and the Confederations Cup in both 2005 and 2009.

Having already achieved so much, Kaka will be looking to become that rarest of things – a player with two World Cup victories. He would probably also very much like to lay his hands on the Golden Boot.

With team mates Luis Fabiano and Robinho also in competition as potential Golden Boot winners, with Fabiano one of the favourites, and a very tough group round draw for Brazil, it will be interesting to see how Kaka performs from a goal scoring perspective. Overall play wise though, anything short of a stunning display of football from this player will be a surprise.

In the current market, if you fancy Kaka for the Golden Boot and Brazil as winners too, the best price on the double is 80-1, which Paddy Power and Bet365 are both offering. Most other bookmakers taking this bet offer 50-1, but Sky Bet come in lowest with just 40-1 on this combination.