Harry Kane has won the 2026 Ballon d’Or. The ceremony took place on Monday evening at the London Palladium, held in London rather than the usual Paris to mark 70 years since Stanley Matthews won the first edition. Kane is the first Englishman to win it since Michael Owen in 2001. In the women’s award, Alexia Putellas won and Poland’s Ewa Pajor finished second.
Why Kane
Kane is 33 and coming off the best season of his career. According to ESPN he scored 73 goals for Bayern and England, and he led England to the World Cup semi-finals. He also won the Gerd Müller Trophy for the best striker. Kylian Mbappé was second and Lamine Yamal third, with Yamal also taking the Kopa Trophy for the best young player.
Kane came through at Tottenham and is their record scorer, so the Premier League has a share in this one even though he has played for Bayern since 2023. He is the fifth English winner, after Stanley Matthews, Bobby Charlton, Kevin Keegan and Michael Owen.
The top ten
| Rank | Player | Club |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harry Kane | Bayern Munich |
| 2 | Kylian Mbappé | Real Madrid |
| 3 | Lamine Yamal | Barcelona |
| 4 | Rodri | Barcelona (previously Manchester City) |
| 5 | Lionel Messi | Inter Miami |
| 6 | Khvicha Kvaratskhelia | PSG |
| 7 | Ousmane Dembélé | PSG |
| 8 | Erling Haaland | Manchester City |
| 9 | Michael Olise | Bayern Munich |
| 10 | Fabián Ruiz | PSG |
Rodri finished fourth despite leaving City for Barcelona in the summer (we covered that here). Ferran Torres, who scored the winner in the World Cup final, is 16th. PSG were named club of the year, and Luis de la Fuente, who led Spain to the world title, coach of the year.
Ewa Pajor second in the world
Alexia Putellas won the women’s award for the third time, after 2021 and 2022. She is the first player in the English game to win it, having moved from Barcelona to London City Lionesses after the season. Poland captain Ewa Pajor was second. According to ESPN she was the top scorer in the Women’s Champions League with 11 goals and scored 31 in all competitions. Manchester City’s Khadija Shaw was third.
The Premier League in the ranking, and the FPL angle
Five Premier League players made the top 30. Arsenal, the English champions, have the most.
| Rank | Player | FPL price | Ownership | Season points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | Haaland (MCI) | £15.7m | 78% | 66 |
| 15 | Rice (ARS) | £7.4m | 12.5% | 39 |
| 21 | Gabriel (ARS) | £7.9m | 22.4% | 52 |
| 27 | Bruno Fernandes (MUN) | £11.7m | 24.6% | 33 |
| 29 | Saliba (ARS) | £5.9m | 0.2% | 0 |
A few things worth noting:
- Haaland is the highest-ranked Premier League player and is owned by 78% of FPL managers. He scored in Gameweek 8, but City lost at Villa.
- Gabriel was the top FPL scorer of Gameweek 8 on Saturday (17 points, a goal in his 200th league game).
- Bruno Fernandes made the ranking, yet on Sunday he spent the whole match on the bench after his row with Michael Carrick. Details in our Gameweek 8 review.
- Saliba has a back injury and is not playing, hence zero FPL points.
- Bukayo Saka received the Socrates Award for his charity work. On the pitch he is out with a thigh injury, and English media say he may not play until December.
The Ballon d’Or rewards last season and the World Cup, while FPL points depend on what happens now. So do not treat this ranking as transfer advice. Current ratings for every player are in our AI rankings.
Sources: ESPN, Yahoo Sports and the official ceremony broadcast (ballondor.com). FPL data: official game API, as of Tuesday 27 October.