Harry Kane wins 2026 Ballon d’Or

Harry Kane of Bayern Munich won the 2026 men’s Ballon d’Or on Monday night, finishing ahead of Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappé and Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal at a ceremony at the London Palladium, ESPN reported.

Kane, 33, is the first Englishman to win the award in 25 years and the fifth English winner overall. The last was Michael Owen in 2001. It is the 70th Ballon d’Or.

“Being in London, it is extra special, it felt like a good omen,” Kane said onstage, according to ESPN.

The ceremony was pushed back 30 minutes to 8:30 p.m. local time. ESPN reported that Kane starred for Bayern in the Bundesliga and the Champions League during the 2025-26 season and led England to the World Cup semifinals. It put his total at 73 goals across the season.

Mbappé finished second and Yamal third. ESPN’s published top 10 had Rodri fourth, Lionel Messi fifth, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia sixth, Ousmane Dembélé seventh, Erling Haaland eighth, Michael Olise ninth and Fabián Ruiz 10th. No vote totals or points were released in the report.

France Football organizes the award. A jury of 100 journalists votes, and each member ranks 10 players from a 30-player shortlist. The player with the most points wins.

Alexia Putellas won the women’s Ballon d’Or for a third time, adding to the awards she took in 2021 and 2022.

Yamal was named the men’s young player of the year. Asked about the prize, he said it “should have been for him,” meaning Kane, and added that Kane “deserves it,” ESPN reported. Spain’s Luis de la Fuente was named coach of the year and Spain’s Unai Simón won the men’s goalkeeper award.

The night had an early stumble. The official Ballon d’Or website briefly listed Kane, Yamal and Mbappé all as winners during the broadcast, and some live blogs carried conflicting entries. ESPN, CBS Sports and the official award listing named Kane as the winner.

Mbappé was among Monday’s headlines for his club form as well. Canada News Media reported on his two goals in Real Madrid’s 2-1 win over Barcelona on Sunday.

The Ballon d’Or was among the most searched topics in Canada on Monday, according to Google Trends, with more than 100,000 searches in the past day.

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Sources: ESPN, CBS Sports, ballondor.com.