Ballon d'Or 2026: Three jurors excluded Mbappé from their Top 10 despite second place

Kylian Mbappé finished second in the 2026 Ballon d’Or, just 28 points behind Harry Kane (1,027 to 1,055), but three jurors did not see fit to place him in their Top 10. The detailed ballots, unveiled Friday by L’Équipe, reveal unexpected divergences of opinion within the jury.

The France captain nonetheless appears in 97 of the 100 voting ballots. His absence from the rankings of Scotland, Greece and Ukraine therefore remains a notable anomaly, especially since the final gap with Kane could have been bridged by a few additional placements.

Harry Kane himself did not achieve unanimity: jurors from Côte d’Ivoire and Mexico also ignored him, despite his 40 first-place votes that allowed him to win the trophy. Lamine Yamal, third with 881 points, was excluded from the Top 10 by four journalists — those from Belarus, Cameroon, Croatia and Greece.

The Greek ballot is the most singular of all. Its author, Manos Staramopoulos, placed Khvicha Kvaratskhelia at the top of his personal ranking, ahead of Rodri, Willian Pacho, Marc Cucurella and Joao Neves — five names absent from the final podium. A vote that alone illustrates the scale of divergences among the hundred jurors and reminds us how much each ballot can weigh in such a tight contest.