World Cup awards: Best and Worst of 2010

The World Cup Golden Ball and Golden Boot awards have been handed out, so now it's time for the big ones. Presenting BigPond Sport's World Cup awards of 2010, for the tournament's best goal, worst dive, best eye candy, greatest refereeing blunder and more.

The Young Maradona Award: Best Goal
Nominations: Giovanni van Bronkhorst's long-range strike (Netherlands v Uruguay), Maicon's tight angle (Brazil v North Korea), Fabio Quagliarella's cheeky chip (Italy v Slovakia), Keisuke Honda's free kick (Japan v Denmark), Carlos Tevez's wonder striker (Argentina v Mexico).
Winner: Giovanni van Bronkhorst

For a tournament dogged by an unpredictable ball that, for once, turned out to be as bad as the players had predicted, the 2010 World Cup still managed to produce some special goals. Japan's classy Keisuke Honda had the best free kick of the competition, Golden Ball winner Diego Forlan scored some crackers, Brazil's Maicon found the net with an improbable (and perhaps unintentional) shot from the tightest of angles, and Fabio Quagliarella delivered Italy's only bright spot of the campaign with an incredible chip from outside the area.

But for us, the winner had to be the 35-metre wonder goal from Dutch captain Giovanni van Bronkhorst, who showed just what the Jabulani was capable of with a frankly ridiculous attempt against Uruguay.

The Klinsmann-Rivaldo Award: Worst Dive
Nominations: Too many to mention
Winner: Kader Keita (Ivory Coast v Brazil)

This was a hotly contested field at the 2010 World Cup. Spain's Joan Capdevila produced a blatant effort to get Portugal's Ricardo Costa sent off for an elbow that never happened. Chile's Artuto Vidal's elaborate fall saw Swiss midfielder Valon Behrami given a straight red card in their group match. But the winner, surely, was Kader Keita of the Ivory Coast, who essentially ran into the back of Brazil star Kaka and then dramatically dropped to the floor holding his face in his hands. Kaka saw red and earned a one-game suspension, and football's reputation took another ugly hit.

The Old Maradona Award: Most Entertaining Personality
Nominations: There could only be one.
Winner: Diego Maradona

Maradona has brought so much to the world of football. Unbelievable skills. Possibly the greatest goal in history. The "hand of God". A string of bizarre controversies. Enough quotes to keep journalists happy for decades.

And in 2010, he just kept on giving. Coming into the tournament as an unlikely – and apparently poor – choice for the Argentina coaching job, Maradona somehow got his team to turn around its horrible form and produce arguably the most entertaining football of the competition. Even his team's demise was eventful – a stunning 4-0 loss to Germany – and he bowed out in trademark, quotable fashion, saying: "It is like getting punched by Muhammad Ali; I don't have any energy left." Here's hoping he can stay alive and employed until 2014.

The Saudi Arabia Award: Wost Team
Nominations: Italy, France, Honduras, North Korea
Winner: France

In a tournament that produced its fair share of dour, ugly football – all the way to the dying moments of the final – some teams stood head and shoulders above the rest as truly terrible. Italy managed to go from champions to first-round losers. North Korea managed to concede seven goals against a Portugal side that did not score a goal in any of its other three games. And Honduras managed to be consistently rubbish over three forgetful matches.

But France's self-destruction deserves special praise. Having inexplicably kept Raymond Domenech as coach despite a horrible Euro 2008 campaign, France managed to turn a group of stars into a useless team that was eventually embarrassed by struggling hosts South Africa. They even had a player strike against the coach, mid tournament, and provoked lawmakers back home to begin an investigation into the nation's football set-up.

The Kevin Costner's Waterworld Award: Biggest Flop
Nominations: Fernando Torres, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney
Winner: Wayne Rooney

Liverpool star Fernando Torres went to South Africa as one half of a deadly strike force duo – but found himself so outclassed by David Villa that he ended up on the bench in Spain's final two matches. Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo had the chance to cement his name as a great after losing his best-player-in-the-world mantle to Lionel Messi, but instead struggled against everyone except North Korea. But Wayne Rooney tops the lot. With the weight of a nation on his shoulders after a stellar season for Manchester United, Rooney failed to fire against relative minnows the USA, Algeria and Slovenia, with many Englishmen back home calling for the country's best player to be dropped from the starting side. In the end, England's thrashing at the hands of Germany looked sadly inevitable.

The Senegal Class of '02 Award: Biggest Surprise Packet
Nominations: New Zealand, Uruguay, Brett Holman
Winner: Brett Holman

New Zealand went into the 2010 World Cup as the team-most-likely-to-be-an-embarrassment and finished it as the only undefeated team in the tournament, Spain included. Uruguay – a country with 3.5 million people, a million fewer than Sydney – went all the way to the World Cup semi-final, and were the highest-placed South American team at the Cup.

But the winner of this award, for Socceroos fans, must be Holman. Denigrated by Australian football fans, SBS fanatics and some people in our office as the worst player at the tournament, Holman instead produced some terrific football to be Australia's best performer. His long-range goal against Serbia gave the Socceroos a chance of an unlikely round of 16 berth and qualified as one of the best goals of the Cup.

The Zinedine Zidane Award: Best Brain Explosion
Nominations: Sani Kaita (Nigeria v Greece), Felipe Melo (Brazil v Netherlands), Nigel De Jong (Netherlands v Spain)
Winner: Felipe Melo

The humble brain explosion is simply a part of football. Occasionally, it's the best part. Nobody remembers the tedious 120-minute borefest that was the 2006 World Cup final – apart from Zinedine Zidane's classic headbutt on Marco Matterazzi. Several players did their best to follow in Zidane's footsteps in South Africa, with Nigeria's Sani Kaita stomping on a Greek defender for no reason whatsoever, and Holland's Nigel De Jong apparently breaking one of Xabi Alonso's ribs with the best flying kick to the chest since Mr Miyagi was a lad.

But Brazil midfielder Felipe Melo went down in ignominy after his stupid stomp on the (admittedly annoying) Arjen Robben, which resulted in Brazil being reduced to 10 men during their World Cup quarter-final. Already behind 2-1, Melo's red card all but ended the chances of football's greatest powerhouse, with national hero Ronaldo warning Melo not to return home any time soon.

The David Beckham Award: Best Eye Candy
Winners: Fabio Cannavaro, Sara Carbonero, Larissa Riquelme

With England pretty boy Becks ruled out of the tournament through injury, female fans had to turn their attention elsewhere for the usual dose of World Cup eye candy. The leading candidate was apparently Italian captain Fabio Cannavaro, whose blue-eyed stare earned him the title of best-looking footballer according to online votes on an American dating website. The next best were Spainish duo Fernando Torres and David Villa, with England's Wayne Rooney getting the unfortunate title of the World Cup's ugliest player. Diego Forlan's imressive pectorals should also probably get a mention.

For the lads, the WAG of the tournament gong goes to Sara Carbonero, Spanish TV reporter and Iker Casillas's better half, whose ability to distract players from the sidelines was blamed by some in the Spanish media for the team's first-up defeat to Switzerland. And well-endowed Paraguay supporter Larissa Riquelme (pictured above) gets the nod for fan of the tournament after somehow persuading men around the world to start supporting Paraguay.

The Roberto Baggio Award: Worst Miss
Winner: Yakubu Aiyegbeni (Nigeria)

With Nigeria trailing South Korea 2-1 in their final and must-win match of the group stage, striker Yakubu found himself in the perfect opportunity to score. With the Korean goalkeeper sprawled out beside him, a low pass was sent in towards Yakubu's feet, with an open goal barely one metre away from him. The Everton striker took a calm, first-time shot.

And missed.

The game would go on to finish 2-2, with Nigeria just a goal away from qualifying for the knockout rounds. It was a moment to immortalise Yakubu in World Cup history, and this award will no doubt be named in his honour come 2014.

The David Seaman Award: Worst Goalkeeping Blunder
Winner: Robert Green

There was some competition for the worst defensive blunder of the World Cup, but the classic moment came from England goalkeeper Robert Green, who pretty much summed up England's campaign by letting a tame shot from USA's Clint Dempsey slip through his hands. It was a shot your grandmother would have stopped, but somehow bobbled just enough on the way to the waiting Green to find its way past him and into the net. Fabio Capello made a half-hearted effort to blame the horrendous Jabulani ball for the goal, but showed what he really thought by dropped Green after England's first match.

The Graham Poll Award: Worst Refereeing Mistake
Winner: Mauricio Espinosa (Uruguay)

Again, this was a closely-fought field, with a variety of refereeing decision ranging from poor to unbelievable bad. There were a string of poor red card decisions, from Tim Cahill's unlucky sending-off to Kaka's, and the goal scored by Argentina's Carlos Tevez against Mexico that was a couple of metres offside.

But Uruguayan referee Mauricio Espinosa and his assistants took the cake with the decision that could see goal-line technology finally introduced to international football. Their decision not to award England's Frank Lampard a goal against Germany in the round of 16 – after the ball had bounced at least a foot inside the goal mouth – was the most controversial moment of the tournament, and would have been more so if Germany hadn't utterly outclass the English for the rest of the match.

The Punxsutawney Phil Award: Best Psychic Animal
Winner: Paul the Octopus

Netherlands fell just one game short. Spain stumbled at the first hurdle. New Zealand were undefeated but didn't register a win. There was only one perfect tournament at the 2010 World Cup, and it belonged to a German octopus named Paul.

The exploits of Paul the Octopus have become a worldwide sensation in recent weeks, making the eight-limbed genius arguably the greatest animal predictor in history. Paul correctly predicted the result of all seven matches involving Germany, plus the final, and no doubt would have predicted the final score in every other match if given the chance. A true modern marvel, and undoubtedly the biggest discovery of South Africa 2010.