Ballon d’Or 2026: Time, Favourites, Voting and Every Winner Explained

Ballon d’Or 2026: Time, Favourites, Voting and Every Winner Explained

London hosts the Ballon d’Or for the first time tonight. Harry Kane is the bookmakers’ favourite to become England’s first winner in 25 years, with Kylian Mbappe and Lamine Yamal close behind.

The 2026 Ballon d’Or ceremony takes place at the London Palladium tonight, Monday 26 October, with proceedings starting at 8pm UK time. It is the first time the award has been presented in London, and the choice of venue is deliberate: this is the prize’s 70th anniversary, and the very first winner in 1956 was England’s Stanley Matthews.

Seventy years on, another Englishman goes into the night as favourite. Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane overtook Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal at the top of the betting in recent weeks, while a late run on Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe has pushed the France captain into second place in the market. In the women’s race, Alexia Putellas is the clear frontrunner.

Who will win the Ballon d’Or 2026?

The men’s race has turned into a three-way contest, and the shifts in the betting suggest the jury may be more divided than it has been for years.

Harry Kane

Kane’s case rests on goals, as it always does. He finally has the silverware at Bayern Munich that eluded him for so long at Tottenham, and he would be the first English winner since Michael Owen in 2001. Kane has said winning “would be incredible”, and he would become only the fifth Englishman to lift the golden ball.

Kylian Mbappe

The late movement in the betting for Mbappe has made this a genuine contest. The Real Madrid striker has never won the Ballon d’Or despite finishing in the top places several times, and a first win would end one of the more surprising gaps on any modern great’s CV.

Lamine Yamal

Yamal was odds-on for much of the summer and remains the player many neutrals would like to see win. There is one significant hurdle: no teenager has ever won the men’s Ballon d’Or. The Barcelona winger, who turned 19 in July, would break a record that has stood for 70 years.

How the Ballon d’Or voting works

The Ballon d’Or is organised and voted on by the French magazine France Football. The ceremony itself is co-organised with UEFA.

Who are the judges?

The voters are an international jury of specialist journalists. For the men’s prize, one journalist represents each country in the top 100 of the FIFA rankings. For the women’s prize, it is one journalist from each nation in the top 50. This year the rankings dated 8 September 2026 were used.

The 30-player shortlists are chosen beforehand by France Football and L’Equipe editorial staff, one juror from the previous year, and UEFA ambassadors. Luis Figo and Fabio Capello helped select the men’s list and Nadine Kessler the women’s.

What are the judging criteria?

Jurors are asked to weigh three criteria in this order:

1. Individual performances, and decisive and impressive character
2. Team performances and titles won
3. Class and fair play

Only performances between 3 August 2025 and 19 July 2026 count, so the 2026 World Cup falls inside the voting window.

How are the points awarded?

Each juror ranks 10 players from the shortlist. Points are then awarded on a sliding scale:

With 100 jurors in the men’s vote, the maximum possible total is 1,500 points, which a player would only get by being every juror’s first choice. If two players finish level, the one with more first-place votes wins. If they are still tied, second-place votes are compared, and so on down the list. The editor-in-chief of France Football settles any dispute.

The closest Ballon d’Or votes

The current voting format has been used since 2016. Under it, the tightest finish came in 2019, when Lionel Messi beat Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk by just seven points. Given how the betting has moved this year, the 2026 vote could be just as tight.

The 2021 result still rankles for many. Lewandowski had been widely expected to win in 2020, but that year’s award was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Ballon d’Or 2026 men’s nominees

The 30 players on the men’s shortlist are listed below, with the club or clubs they represented during the voting period.

• Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid, England)
• Pau Cubarsi (Barcelona, Spain)
• Marc Cucurella (Chelsea/Real Madrid, Spain)
• Ousmane Dembele (PSG, France)
• Luis Diaz (Bayern Munich, Colombia)
• Bruno Fernandes (Man Utd, Portugal)
• Gabriel (Arsenal, Brazil)
• Erling Haaland (Man City, Norway)
• Achraf Hakimi (PSG, Morocco)
• Harry Kane (Bayern Munich, England)
• Kvicha Kvaratskhelia (PSG, Georgia)
• Lamine Yamal (Barcelona, Spain)
• Sadio Mane (Al Nassr, Senegal)
• Marquinhos (PSG, Brazil)
• Lautaro Martinez (Inter, Argentina)
• Kylian Mbappe (Real Madrid, France)
• Nuno Mendes (PSG, Portugal)
• Lionel Messi (Inter Miami, Argentina)
• Joao Neves (PSG, Portugal)
• Michael Olise (Bayern Munich, France)
• Willian Pacho (PSG, Ecuador)
• Julian Quinones (Al Qadsiah, Mexico)
• Declan Rice (Arsenal, England)
• Rodri (Man City/Barcelona, Spain)
• Fabian Ruiz (PSG, Spain)
• William Saliba (Arsenal, France)
• Ferran Torres (Barcelona/PSG, Spain)
• Dayot Upamecano (Bayern Munich, France)
• Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid, Brazil)
• Vitinha (PSG, Portugal)

Shortlist by the numbers

• Most-represented club: PSG, with at least nine nominees
• Bayern Munich: four nominees (Kane, Diaz, Olise, Upamecano)
• Arsenal: three nominees (Gabriel, Rice, Saliba)
• English nominees: three (Kane, Bellingham, Rice)
• Premier League presence: seven nominees spent at least part of the voting period with Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City or Manchester United, whose captain Bruno Fernandes makes the list
• Past winners on the list: Messi, Dembele and Rodri

Women’s Ballon d’Or 2026 favourites

Alexia Putellas, who moved from Barcelona to London City Lionesses, is the leading contender for a third Women’s Ballon d’Or. Her closest challengers in the betting are former Barcelona team-mates Ewa Pajor and holder Aitana Bonmati.

Arsenal’s Alessia Russo and Manchester City’s Alex Greenwood are the English players on the women’s shortlist. The Women’s Ballon d’Or was first awarded in 2018, when Lyon’s Ada Hegerberg won the inaugural prize.

England’s Ballon d’Or winners

Four Englishmen have won the Ballon d’Or, and Kane would be the fifth. Including Scotland and Northern Ireland, players from the UK have won it six times.

Tonight’s ceremony comes three months after the death of Keegan, who died in July aged 75. He remains the only Englishman to have won the award twice, both times while playing for Hamburg.

Most Ballon d’Or wins of all time

Ten men have won the Ballon d’Or more than once. Messi’s eight wins are a record, and between 2008 and 2017 he and Cristiano Ronaldo were the only winners. Since Messi’s last win in 2023, the award has gone to a different player each year.

Recent Ballon d’Or winners

Modric’s 2018 win is the only break in the Messi-Ronaldo era from 2008 to 2021. No award was made in 2020.

What is the BOAT vote?

To mark the 70th anniversary, fans are being asked to choose the ‘Ballon d’Or Of All Time’, or BOAT. The vote is open on the official Ballon d’Or website, and supporters can only choose from the 10 multiple winners in the table above. It costs €1 to vote, and voters are entered into a draw for tickets to next year’s ceremony.

The other awards at the Ballon d’Or ceremony

The golden ball is not the only prize handed out tonight. The other awards are:

• Young Talent of the Year (men’s and women’s): formerly the Kopa Trophy, for the best player under 21. Only former Ballon d’Or winners vote, and they award 5, 3 and 1 points. Lamine Yamal won the men’s prize last season.
• Goalkeeper of the Year (men’s and women’s): previously the Yashin Trophy, named after Lev Yashin, still the only goalkeeper to win the Ballon d’Or.
• Coach of the Year (men’s and women’s): previously the Johan Cruyff Trophy.
• Striker of the Year (men’s and women’s): formerly the Gerd Muller Trophy, for the top scorer across all competitive matches last season.
• Club of the Year (men’s and women’s): for collective excellence and results. Number of Ballon d’Or nominees decides any tie, which works in PSG’s favour on the men’s side.
• Socrates Award: for humanitarian and charity work off the pitch.

For more on the players who shaped the award’s 70-year history, browse our profiles of football’s legendary players.