SportsCatch
EN

Harry Kane wins Ballon d'Or 2026 ahead of Mbappé by a handful of points

Harry Kane claimed his first Ballon d'Or on Monday evening in London, narrowly edging out Kylian Mbappé. The gap between the two men is said to be less than the 41 points that separated Rodri from Vinicius in 2024.

1 min read
Harry Kane wins Ballon d'Or 2026 ahead of Mbappé by a handful of points
Share

Harry Kane secured his first Ballon d’Or on Monday evening at the London Palladium, ahead of Kylian Mbappé and Lamine Yamal following an extremely tight vote. The 33-year-old Bayern Munich striker was rewarded after a season of 73 goals in 65 matches across all competitions.

“Since arriving at Bayern Munich, I have greatly improved as a player and also as a leader,” Kane said on stage. “It is a privilege and a great honour to play for Bayern Munich.” He also paid tribute to his international teammates and coach Thomas Tuchel, describing this year as “very special, not perfect, but still satisfying”.

The margin over Mbappé promises to be razor-thin. Vincent Garcia, editor-in-chief of France Football, confirmed that “the two closest are the top two” and that the points gap between Kane and Mbappé is “less than that between Rodri and Vinicius in 2024” — meaning fewer than 41 points. “It came down to really, really very little once again this year,” he insisted.

The full voting details and point-by-point rankings will be published on Saturday by France Football. For Kylian Mbappé, who is approaching 28, the wait continues: the Ballon d’Or remains one of the rare trophies missing from his honours list.

Share
{# Sitewide native fullscreen interstitial — our own bet-CTA card blown up to a takeover (replaces the SDK overlay). The shared card animations + countdown load once, AFTER the interstitial markup, so the countdown script's first tick sees this card's node too (the in-read card, in
above, already exists). One include covers both surfaces. #}