Every player on a team is important for success at the highest level of competition, but goalkeepers didn’t get recognized with a positional award until 1994 with the prize that is now called the Golden Glove.
In its origin the trophy was named the Lev Yashin Award that determined who was the best goalkeeper of the competition. The name logically referred to the Soviet former player who remains the best ever at the position for many people.
This was changed for the 2010 edition, when the award was renamed the Golden Glove. Being relatively new compared to the history of the competition, there have only been eight winners of the prized award, with four of them also becoming champions. The winner is chosen by FIFA’s Technical Study Group.
Every Golden Glove winner
| World Cup | Golden Glove winner | Team | Clean sheets | Team’s finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Michel Preud’homme | Belgium | 2 | Round of 16 |
| 1998 | Fabien Barthez | France | 5 | Champions |
| 2002 | Oliver Kahn* | Germany | 5 | Runners-up |
| 2006 | Gianluigi Buffon | Italy | 5 | Champions |
| 2010 | Iker Casillas | Spain | 5 | Champions |
| 2014 | Manuel Neuer | Germany | 4 | Champions |
| 2018 | Thibaut Courtois | Belgium | 3 | Third place |
| 2022 | Emiliano Martínez | Argentina | 3 | Champions |
