Ballon d'Or 2026 winner: Harry Kane beats Mbappe and Yamal. Full results and top 10

Harry Kane won the 2026 Ballon d’Or in London on Monday night, 26 October, finishing ahead of Kylian Mbappé and Lamine Yamal. He is the first Englishman to win football’s most famous individual prize since Michael Owen in 2001, and only the fifth ever.

Alexia Putellas won the women’s Ballon d’Or for the third time, after 2021 and 2022.

Why did Harry Kane win the Ballon d’Or?

The numbers made it hard to argue. Kane scored 73 goals for Bayern Munich and England in the 2025/26 season, according to the Bundesliga’s official site, which calls it the best scoring season in European football apart from Lionel Messi’s 2011/12.

The breakdown:

• 36 Bundesliga goals, making him the league’s top scorer again as Bayern won their 35th title.
• 14 goals in 13 Champions League games.
• A goal in every round of the German Cup, including a hat-trick in the final against Stuttgart, for a domestic double.
• Six goals at the 2026 World Cup, where England finished third, their best showing since 1966.

He went in as the bookmakers’ favourite. “I am almost speechless,” he said after collecting the trophy. On stage, he said being in London made it “extra special” and thanked Tottenham, the club that made him, Yahoo Sports reported. He also won the Gerd Müller Trophy for the season’s best striker.

Ballon d’Or 2026 men’s top 10

1. Harry Kane (Bayern Munich, England)
2. Kylian Mbappé (Real Madrid, France)
3. Lamine Yamal (Barcelona, Spain)
4. Rodri (Spain)
5. Lionel Messi (Inter Miami, Argentina)
6. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (PSG, Georgia)
7. Ousmane Dembélé (PSG, France)
8. Erling Haaland (Manchester City, Norway)
9. Michael Olise (Bayern Munich, France)
10. Fabián Ruiz (PSG, Spain)

All the other Ballon d’Or 2026 awards

• Women’s Ballon d’Or: Alexia Putellas (Spain), ahead of Ewa Pajor and Khadija Shaw
• Kopa Trophy (best young player): Lamine Yamal; women’s: Vicky López
• Yashin Trophy (goalkeeper): Unai Simón; women’s: Cata Coll
• Coach of the Year: Luis de la Fuente (Spain); women’s: Pere Romeu (Barcelona)
• Club of the Year: Paris Saint-Germain; women’s: Barcelona
• Women’s Gerd Müller Trophy: Charlyn Corral (Pachuca)
• Sócrates Award: Bukayo Saka, for his charity work

What went wrong on the night

It was the first Ballon d’Or ceremony held outside France, at the London Palladium, marking the award’s 70th anniversary. It did not go smoothly. The official Ballon d’Or website published articles naming Kane, Mbappé and Yamal as winners before the ceremony, then took them down, Yahoo Sports reported. The start was delayed by 30 minutes without explanation, and police stepped in when fans outside became unruly trying to get close to players.

Mbappé had a rough day of a different kind: Dawn reported on Tuesday that Chinese brands had dropped him for “offending national sentiments”.

Why it matters to fans in Pakistan

Kane’s win ends a run in which the award mostly went to players from Spain, France and Argentina, and it rewards a pure goalscorer rather than a midfielder or winger. For the many Pakistani fans who follow the Premier League, there is also a twist: the first English winner in 25 years earned it in Germany, not England. Kane turns 34 next summer; the question now is whether Yamal, at 19, takes the next one.