Ballon d'Or 2026: Kane leads the field into Monday's ceremony
The Ballon d'Or 2026 race is led by Harry Kane, the odds-on favourite heading into Monday's ceremony in London. The Bayern Munich striker would become the first Englishman to win the award since Michael Owen in 2001.
Victory would make Kane only the fifth English winner, after Sir Stanley Matthews, Sir Bobby Charlton, Kevin Keegan and Owen, and the first Bayern player to claim it in 45 years. The result is expected to be one of the tightest in recent memory.
Speaking to Sky Sports News after Bayern's Champions League draw with Arsenal last Wednesday, Kane said: "It'd be incredible if I do. It'd be special for sure. I'd love to win it, but we will have to wait and see. A big night, but I'm not getting carried away."
Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappe close the gap
Lamine Yamal, the 19-year-old Barcelona forward and Spain World Cup winner, is 14 years Kane's junior and is aiming to become the youngest-ever Ballon d'Or winner. He has campaigned openly for the award.
"Being completely honest, it's not just this year I've been at a Ballon d'Or [winning] level, but longer," he told The Guardian in September, having also appeared to dismiss Kane's credentials earlier that month in a Spanish interview.
Yamal had been the bookmakers' closest challenger, but a late surge in the betting has moved Real Madrid striker and France captain Kylian Mbappe into second favourite. A first-time winner is set to be crowned, the third year running after the long Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo era.
Trophies and the World Cup shape the honours
Voters judge performances from August 3, 2025 to July 19, 2026. In that window Kane helped Bayern lift the Bundesliga and the German Cup, while Yamal won LaLiga but missed the Copa del Rey; both players won their respective Super Cups. Mbappe won no trophy with Real Madrid or France.
In Europe, Kane went furthest: Bayern reached the Champions League semi-finals, losing 6-5 on aggregate to eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain. Barcelona and Real Madrid both exited in the quarter-finals.
Yamal took the biggest international prize, helping Spain win the World Cup. Kane and England claimed bronze by beating Mbappe's France in the third-place play-off.
Goals, assists and dribbles behind the vote
Kane scored 73 goals for club and country, against 58 for Mbappe and 25 for Yamal. He claimed the Golden Shoe for a second time, and his 61 Bayern goals were 19 more than any other player in Europe's big-five leagues — the most in a season since Cristiano Ronaldo's 61 for Real Madrid in 2014/15.
Kane added 12 goals for England, six of them in the run to the World Cup semi-finals, making him England's all-time leading World Cup scorer. Mbappe, though, outscored him at the World Cup and in last season's Champions League.
Mbappe took the World Cup Golden Boot with 10 goals, the most in a single edition since Gerd Muller's 10 in 1970, and is now the all-time leading World Cup scorer with 22. He was also top scorer in LaLiga with 25 and in the Champions League with 15, one more than Kane.
Yamal's World Cup was quieter: one goal, with team-mates Rodri and Pau Cubarsi taking the player of the tournament and young player awards. He arrived after a hamstring injury suffered in mid-April, returning as a substitute in the goalless draw with Cape Verde on June 15 and scoring on his first start against Saudi Arabia six days later.
He still made the most dribbles at the World Cup (58) and across Europe's top-five leagues (265). He also led the assist count with 20, against 13 for Mbappe and eight for Kane, though his 45 goal involvements trail Kane's 81 and Mbappe's 71.
What the pundits say about Kane
Jamie Carragher: "Kane should win the Ballon d'Or and the reason is because he's scored 73 goals in a season and only Lionel Messi has scored more in a season. He also won the double with Bayern Munich and was part of an England team that got to the World Cup semi-finals."
Paul Merson: "It's such a hard one because Kane's scored a million goals and has been phenomenal, but Lamine Yamal's been phenomenal too and he's won the World Cup. But I'm hoping Kane because Lamine Yamal's going to win it three to five times in years to come."
Tim Sherwood said Kane should win and that "if he doesn't win it now, then he never will". Sue Smith argued Kane "has got to win", citing his goals, movement and consistency, while Michael Dawson and Clinton Morrison also backed him, with Dawson naming Yamal as the man to beat.
What to watch on Monday night
The ceremony is being held in London as a tribute to inaugural winner Matthews. The 30-man shortlist also includes Jude Bellingham, Erling Haaland, Ousmane Dembele, Vinicius Jr, Lionel Messi and Declan Rice.
Read the original report at skysports.com.
