Harry Kane won the 2026 Men’s Ballon d’Or. UEFA’s final ranking put Kylian Mbappé second and Lamine Yamal third. Kane is trending because the result made him the first Englishman to win the award since Michael Owen in 2001, and it capped a standout season for Bayern Munich and England’s captain.
The 70th-edition ceremony took place at the London Palladium on Monday, October 26, 2026. UEFA listed a start time of 8:00 p.m. London time, GMT (UTC+00:00), or 20:00 UTC. For readers on the U.S. East Coast, that was 4:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT, UTC−04:00) on the same date. The U.K. had moved from British Summer Time to GMT on Sunday, October 25, while U.S. daylight saving time remained in effect until November 1. See the GOV.UK clock-change schedule and NIST’s 2026 daylight-saving dates.
| Place | Player | Team listed by UEFA |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harry Kane | England, Bayern Munich |
| 2 | Kylian Mbappé | France, Real Madrid |
| 3 | Lamine Yamal | Spain, Barcelona |
| 4 | Rodri | Spain, Manchester City / Barcelona |
| 5 | Lionel Messi | Argentina, Inter Miami |
| 6 | Khvicha Kvaratskhelia | Georgia, Paris Saint-Germain |
| 7 | Ousmane Dembélé | France, Paris Saint-Germain |
| 8 | Erling Haaland | Norway, Manchester City |
| 9 | Michael Olise | France, Bayern Munich |
| 10 | Fabián Ruiz | Spain, Paris Saint-Germain |
UEFA’s official results and rankings also show Kane winning the Men’s Striker of the Year award alongside the main prize.
UEFA reports that Kane scored 73 goals for club and country during the 2025–26 campaign. He helped Bayern retain the Bundesliga as part of a domestic treble, finished as the German league’s top scorer for a third straight season, and scored 14 times in the Champions League as Bayern reached the semifinals. Those figures gave voters both a sustained scoring record and major team achievements to consider.
The Ballon d’Or’s rules explain how those accomplishments are assessed. For the 2026 award, the performance period ran from August 3, 2025, through July 19, 2026, and included international competitions such as the World Cup. The published criteria rank individual performance and decisive impact first, team performance and titles second, and class and fair play third. That framework puts Kane’s goal production at the center while also recognizing Bayern’s trophies. The regulations apply regardless of a player’s nationality or league, and the honor covers one defined season rather than a career total. That context helps explain comparisons with Mbappé, Yamal, and the rest of the shortlist: voters ranked candidates across the same eligibility window using the same criteria.
The men’s award is decided by specialist journalists representing the top 100 countries in the FIFA rankings. Each juror ranks 10 players from the 30-person shortlist; the rankings earn points from 15 for first place down to 1 for tenth. It is therefore a ranked journalists’ award, not a fan poll. The official 2026 regulations provide the voting details.
The immediate news trigger is the confirmed result from London: Kane has won soccer’s best-known individual honor, and the win ends a 25-year gap for English men after Owen’s 2001 victory. The setting amplified the moment too. London hosted the ceremony for the first time, in the award’s 70th year, with the city choice paying tribute to inaugural winner Stanley Matthews.
Kane’s individual haul adds another searchable headline: he took home both the main men’s prize and Men’s Striker of the Year. Searchers looking for “who won the Ballon d’Or” will also see a distinct women’s result: Spain and Barcelona midfielder Alexia Putellas won the 2026 Women’s Ballon d’Or for the third time. The separate categories recognize separate awards, so Kane’s win does not replace or outrank Putellas’s result.
For the complete ceremony context, including the venue, time, and award categories, consult UEFA’s 2026 Ballon d’Or guide. UEFA’s Putellas results report lists the women’s winner and the other honors presented in London.
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