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SportsTHE DUGOUT · Goals And Gold

Harry Kane wins the 2026 Ballon d'Or. Here is why the voters picked him over Mbappé and Lamine Yamal

The Bayern Munich and England striker beat Kylian Mbappé (second) and Lamine Yamal (third) at the first ceremony held outside Paris. He is the first Englishman to win it since Michael Owen in 2001.

By QMS Newsroom26 Oct 2026, 23:55 GMT2 min read
Harry Kane wins the 2026 Ballon d'Or. Here is why the voters picked him over Mbappé and Lamine Yamal
Harry Kane with the Ballon d'Or in London, 26 October 2026.

Harry Kane won the 2026 men's Ballon d'Or on Monday night at the London ceremony, the first held outside Paris. Kylian Mbappé finished second and Lamine Yamal third, according to the official ranking published by France Football. Rodri, Lionel Messi, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Ousmane Dembélé, Erling Haaland, Michael Olise and Fabián Ruiz completed the top ten.

Kane is the first Englishman to win the award since Michael Owen in 2001.

How the vote works

A jury of 100 journalists, one from each of the top 100 countries in FIFA's men's ranking, lists ten players, with 15 points for first place down to one point for tenth. The period judged runs from 3 August 2025 to 19 July 2026, the day of the World Cup final. Voters weigh three criteria: individual performance, team achievements, and class combined with fair play.

Individual performance

Kane scored 73 goals for Bayern Munich and England across that period: 61 for his club and 12 for his country, six of them at the World Cup. Bundesliga.com calls it the second-best scoring season by any player this century, behind Lionel Messi's 82 in 2011/12. He won the European Golden Shoe and was the Bundesliga's top scorer for a third season in a row.

Mbappé was the Champions League's top scorer, one goal ahead of Kane, and won the Golden Boot at the World Cup with ten goals.

Team achievements

Bayern won the Bundesliga, the German Cup and the German Super Cup. In the Champions League quarter-final they knocked out Real Madrid 6-4 on aggregate, with Kane scoring in both legs, before losing the semi-final to Paris Saint-Germain. England reached the World Cup semi-final, lost 2-1 to Argentina and finished third.

Real Madrid ended the season without a trophy. Barcelona won La Liga and the Spanish Super Cup, and Lamine Yamal won the World Cup with Spain. FIFA named his teammate Rodri the best player of that tournament.

In his own words

In November 2025 Kane said he could score 100 goals in a season but would probably not win the Ballon d'Or without the Champions League or the World Cup. He won neither, and won the Ballon d'Or anyway.

Lamine Yamal won the Kopa Trophy for the best young player for a third year running, and said it should have gone to his Barcelona teammate Pau Cubarsí.

The QMS take · Opinion

Barcelona and Madrid fans both had their speeches ready. Neither of their players had what Kane had: the goals and the trophies in the same season. Before anyone types "rigged", read the three criteria.

THE DUGOUT · Goals And GoldGoals And Gold, the full DUGOUT episode
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Sources

Every factual line in this story is checked against at least two independent sources, unless the text says it comes from one report.