What is a Team of the Year award?
Team of the Year is the collective counterpart to the individual season awards: an annual honour naming the outstanding squad in a league, a country, a sport or across sport as a whole. International federations name one, National Olympic Committees name one, professional leagues and college conferences name one, and Laureus names one across every sport at once.[1] [2]
Team of the Tournament and All-Star teams
A related but distinct honour is the symbolic team — the Team of the Tournament, All-Star Five, All-Tournament Team or Best XV named after a championship. These are individual awards in collective form: the federation's technical panel or an accredited media vote names the best player in each position across the event. FIBA, FIVB, IIHF, World Rugby and FIFA all publish them, and they are among the most citable single-event honours in team sport.[2] [3]
Why does it matter?
Because in team sports many of the strongest individual credentials are collective in form. Selection to a Team of the Tournament identifies one player per position out of every competitor at a world championship or Olympic event — a narrower field than most individual season awards, decided by the same technical authority that ran the competition.[2] [3]
References
- Laureus — Team of the Year. Accessed August 2026.
- FIBA — Tournament awards. Accessed August 2026.
- IIHF — Tournament all-star teams. Accessed August 2026.