The 2026 Ballon d'Or ceremony takes place in London for the first time ever on Monday October 26 - here is everything you need to know ahead of the event… Created in 1956 by two sports writers from France Football, a French magazine, the Ballon d'Or is the award given to the best men's and women's player in world football. France Football remain the organisers of the award and the voting but the ceremony is co-organised with UEFA, European football's governing body. Initially, the prize was created to crown the best men's player from Europe.
In 1995, this was expanded to include non-Europeans playing on the continent before it became a global award in 2007. The Women's Ballon d'Or was introduced for the first time in 2018. Ada Hegerberg, who was playing for Lyon at the time, was the inaugural winner.
This year's ceremony marks the 70th anniversary of the Ballon d'Or and is taking place in London to pay tribute to the inaugural winner, England's Stanley Matthews. The venue is the London Palladium theatre in Soho, with the ceremony beginning at 8pm. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Barcelona and Spain winger Lamine Yamal was odds-on to win this year's men's prize, but Bayern Munich and England striker Harry Kane has now taken his place as the bookies' favourite.
London City Lionesses and Spain star Alexia Putellas is the clear frontrunner for the women's Ballon d'Or with her former Barcelona team-mates Ewa Pajor and Aitana Bonmati, the previous winner, closest behind her with the bookies. For the full list of nominess, go to the bottom of this page. Players are judged for their performances over the entirety of last season from August 3 2025 until July 19 2026.
The Ballon d'Or is judged across three key criteria, in descending order of importance: The Ballon d'Or winners are voted for by "an international jury of specialised journalists", according to the awards' website. For the men's prize, one journalist is selected to represent every country in the top 100 FIFA rankings, and for the women's award it is one journalist for each nation in the top 50. This is based on the FIFA rankings in effect at the time, which in this instance is from September 8, 2026.
Each "juror" picks 10 players from the 30-player shortlist in descending order of preference. The shortlist is chosen by France Football's editorial staff, members of L'Equipe's editorial staff, one juror from the previous edition, and UEFA ambassadors Luis Figo and Fabio Capello for the men's trophy and Nadine Kessler for the women's trophy. The 10 players named by each voting journalist are awarded 15, 12, 10, 8, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 points respectively.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
