2006 - Zinedine Zidane
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France's captain Zinedine Zidane won the FIFA Golden Ball award as the outstanding player of the World Cup, even though France failed to win the Cup. Zidane scored 3 goals in the tournament after which he came out with his retirement. In the final, Zidane got a red card for the controversial headbutt against the Italian defender Marco Materazzi.
2010 - Diego Forlan
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Uruguay’s Diego Forlan was named as the best player in the South Africa world cup even though his team was defeated by the Netherlands in the semi-finals. Spain beat the Netherlands and won the cup. Forlan, The former Athletico Madrid striker scored 5 goals in that tournament including a hat-trick against Peru and an injury-time winner against qualification rivals Ecuador.