The Harry Kane Ballon d’Or win became official at the London Palladium on Monday, 26 October 2026, making the Bayern Munich striker the first Englishman to take football’s biggest individual prize in 25 years.
According to ESPN, Kane, 33, beat Kylian Mbappé and Lamine Yamal to the trophy after scoring 73 goals for club and country in the 2025/26 season. Mbappé finished second and Yamal third. The gala, the 70th edition of the awards, was the first to be held in the United Kingdom.
Harry Kane Ballon d’Or win: the season behind the trophy
Kane scored 73 goals in 65 games. His 36 goals in 31 Bundesliga matches made him the league’s top scorer for a third consecutive season, and Bayern won the Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal. He also scored 14 Champions League goals before Paris Saint-Germain knocked Bayern out in the semi-finals.
At the 2026 World Cup, Kane added six goals as England reached the semi-finals, where they lost to Argentina. England then beat France 6-4 in the third-place match, their best finish at the tournament since 1966.
What Harry Kane said after the Ballon d’Or win
Accepting the Ballon d’Or on stage at the London Palladium Theatre, an emotional Kane, who also won the Men’s Striker of the Year award, directed his first words to the jurors who had voted for him:
“Thank you to everyone who voted for me, I can imagine it was tough, so thank you to everyone who voted for me,”
Yamal, who collected the Kopa Trophy for best young player for a third year running, used a brief speech at the ceremony in London to single out his Barcelona teammate Pau Cubarsi, who was also on the shortlist. The 19-year-old said:
“I’d have liked it to be [teammate Pau] Cubarsi,”
Yamal then went further in the same speech, saying the Kopa Trophy he had just been handed on stage in London should have gone to his club teammate Cubarsi rather than to himself, and added:
“This prize should have been for him. He deserves it.”
Records behind the Harry Kane Ballon d’Or win
Kane is the fifth English player to win the award, after Stanley Matthews, Bobby Charlton, Kevin Keegan and Michael Owen, who won in 2001. He is also the first Bayern Munich player to win in 45 years and the club’s first foreign winner.
Mbappé, who finished second, became the World Cup’s all-time leading scorer with 22 goals, 10 of them at the 2026 tournament, after Lionel Messi had broken the all-time World Cup goal record in June. Messi still leads the Ballon d’Or table with eight wins.
Other winners at the 2026 Ballon d’Or ceremony
Alexia Putellas won the women’s Ballon d’Or for a third time, and Spain’s Luis de la Fuente took the Johan Cruyff Trophy as men’s coach of the year. Unai Simón became the first Spaniard to win the Yashin Trophy for the best goalkeeper.
The men’s jury was made up of one journalist from each of the top 100 nations in the FIFA men’s rankings, each ranking 10 players. First place earned 15 points down to one for 10th, and jurors cast their votes by Monday, 28 September 2026.
Sources
- ESPN, Harry Kane wins 2026 Ballon d'Or ahead of Kylian Mbappé, Lamine Yamal; first Englishman in 25 years
- UEFA, Harry Kane wins 2026 Men's Ballon d'Or
- Forbes (Sam Leveridge), Harry Kane Wins The 2026 Ballon D'Or
- Bundesliga, Bayern Munich's Harry Kane wins 2026 Ballon d'Or
- Yahoo Sports, Ballon d'Or 2026 live updates
- Swisher Post, Lionel Messi breaks the all-time World Cup goal record
- Swisher Post, Lionel Messi crowned 2023 Ballon d'Or winner
