2026 Men's Ballon d'Or: the 28 points that kept Mbappé from the trophy

Harry Kane has won the 2026 Men's Ballon d'Or. The England captain received football's most prestigious individual award on Monday 26 October at the Palladium in London, in front of his home crowd. It is the first time the Bayern Munich striker, now 33, has won the trophy.

The detailed ranking is now out, and it confirms how close the contest was. Kane finished with 1,055 points, just 28 ahead of France's Kylian Mbappé (1,027).
Spain's Lamine Yamal took third place with 881.

The narrowest of margins ever

The 100 voting journalists, one per country, left very little between the top two. The gap is smaller than the 41 points that separated Rodri from Vinícius Júnior in 2024, a margin that was already considered tight. France Football editor-in-chief Vincent Garcia said to l'Equipe that Mbappé had led the vote for a long time before Kane overtook him late in the count.

Mbappé's best finish, still no trophy

Kylian Mbappé , the Real Madrid forward had never gone higher than third place (2023). His nine nominations read as follows:

A first for Kane, and a first for England in 25 years

Kane is the first Englishman to win the Ballon d'Or since Michael Owen in 2001.

Ranking, clubs, and points

Three Paris Saint-Germain Players in the top 10

Three Paris Saint-Germain players made the top 10. Ousmane Dembélé, last year's winner, is seventh.

How the vote works

Each of the 100 jurors ranks their ten favourite players from a list of 30 nominees. A first place earns 15 points, then 12, 10, 8, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 for the following places

Country-by-country votes

See here the details by France Football