Harry Kane Ballon d'Or victory in London
Harry Kane has won the 2026 Ballon d'Or, becoming the first English player to take the award in 25 years. The Bayern Munich striker was honoured at a ceremony in London, beating Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe and Barcelona's Lamine Yamal to the prize.
Michael Owen, in 2001, was the last English winner. Kane now joins Sir Stanley Matthews, Sir Bobby Charlton, Kevin Keegan and Owen as the only English players to have received the accolade, which is awarded by the French magazine France Football.
Kane, who also collected the Men's Striker of the Year award, thanked England, Bayern and his former club Tottenham in an emotional speech. "Wow, I'm almost speechless," he said on stage. "Being in London, it is extra special; it felt like a good omen."
Kane's 73-goal season and the Bayern move
The award follows a season in which Kane scored 73 goals for club and country. That tally underpinned his case in a field whose top seven also included Rodri, Lionel Messi, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Ousmane Dembele.
Kane used his speech to describe a career that did not follow a straight line, citing the loan moves he had to fight through earlier in his career. "For any young boy or girl who wants to achieve their dream, anything is possible," he said. "I didn't go straight to the top."
Jamie Carragher, speaking to Sky Sports, said the move from Tottenham to Bayern was central to the win. "There's no way Harry Kane could've won the Ballon d'Or if he was playing for Tottenham," he said, arguing the transfer gave Kane a realistic route to the Champions League and to Ballon d'Or consideration.
Carragher also named Jude Bellingham, who finished 11th, as a future winner. "We do have two of the greatest players of their era," he said, adding that England has not produced enough Ballon d'Or winners.
Website leaks and a delayed ceremony
The build-up was disrupted hours before the announcement when the Ballon d'Or website published three separate articles naming Kane, Yamal and Mbappe as the winner. All three versions were taken down before Kane was confirmed.
The ceremony itself started 45 minutes late, at 8.45pm, with organisers citing London traffic. One of the leaked articles described "a record-breaking welter of league and cup goals in 2025/26" as the basis for Kane's success.
Top ten and the rest of the awards
Kane headed the men's ranking ahead of Mbappe, Yamal, Rodri, Messi, Kvaratskhelia, Dembele, Erling Haaland, Michael Olise and Fabian Ruiz. Bellingham was 11th, Declan Rice 15th and Vinicius Junior 17th.
Alexia Putellas won the Women's Ballon d'Or, listed as London City Lionesses/Barcelona and Spain. Luis de la Fuente took Men's Coach of the Year and Pere Romeu the women's award, while Yamal and Vicky Lopez were named young talents of the year.
Unai Simon and Cata Coll won the goalkeeper awards, Paris Saint-Germain were Men's Club of the Year and Barcelona Women's Club of the Year. Bukayo Saka received the Socrates Award for humanitarian work.
The original report on Kane's win was published by skysports.com.
