Harry Kane wins 2026 Ballon d'Or, ending England's 25-year wait for football's top prize

Harry Kane became the 2026 Ballon d’Or winner at the London Palladium on Monday night, beating Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappe to claim football’s most prestigious individual prize. The Bayern Munich striker scored 73 goals for club and country across the 2025/26 season, earning the votes of 100 journalists from around the world.

Kane is only the fifth Englishman to win the award, following Sir Stanley Matthews, Sir Bobby Charlton, Kevin Keegan and Michael Owen. Owen’s win came 25 years ago, and Matthews claimed the inaugural Ballon d’Or 70 years before this ceremony — a serendipitous anniversary that moved the event from its traditional Paris home to Kane’s hometown of London.

The evening was not without drama. Hours before the ceremony began, the Ballon d’Or’s official website briefly published separate articles declaring all three leading candidates the winner, before the pages were hastily deleted. The internet, predictably, had already captured the evidence. Inside the Palladium, a scheduled half-hour delay stretched to a full hour, while crowds packed the surrounding streets hoping to catch a glimpse of the arriving players.

In the weeks leading up to the vote, both Mbappe and Yamal had mounted visible campaigns to court undecided voters. Mbappe targeted the African voting bloc, while Yamal took a more direct approach, publicly suggesting Kane lacked the “magic” of a true Ballon d’Or winner.

When the ceremony finally got under way, Spain’s Alexia Putellas won her third women’s Ballon d’Or, Bukayo Saka was recognised for his charity work, and Yamal claimed the best young player award — though he ultimately finished behind Kane in the main men’s category.

For Kane, the night represented the culmination of a career built almost entirely on self-belief and consistency. The 33-year-old has never won a major team trophy, but with the golden orb in his hands at the London Palladium, he finally held the one prize that belongs to him alone.