With a month left until the Ballon d'Or 2026 winner is announced in London on October 26, will favourite Harry Kane lift the trophy on home soil or will Lamine Yamal become the youngest winner in the award's history? We've assessed all the runners and riders for the most prestigious personal gong in football... Harry Kane set the record to become the fastest player to 100 goals in the history of the Bundesliga earlier this month.
He didn't just set it, he smashed it, reaching his ton in 98 games - 31 faster than the previous holder, Dieter Muller, whose record had stood for almost half a century. That was underpinned by the most prolific scoring season of his entire career in 2025/26, netting 36 goals in 31 Bundesliga matches as well as 14 in 13 Champions League matches and, if that wasn't enough, a further 12 strikes for England including six at the World Cup. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Already the best No 9 in the world, Kane has somehow found a way to hit new heights even in his 30s.
Scoring 73 goals in 65 games is, simply, mindblowing. And a fitting reward for maintaining his fitness better than he ever has before - having arrived at previous international tournaments already clearly burnt out. Others may have picked up bigger team honours but for an individual award, there has been no player in better form on the planet.
And what better time to pick up the award than in his home town when the winner is crowned at the London Palladium next month?Ron Walker The case for the poster boy of the World Cup champions winning the Ballon d'Or does go a long way to making itself. Not that it's stopped Lamine Yamal from quite publicly adding to it, saying this week the award should go to a "unique" player and was not all about goals. Whether that was a slight on his main rival Kane or not, Lamine Yamal is in esteemed company in his aims of lifting the greatest personal accolade in world football with five of the last seven winners in World Cup years coming from teams who reached the final.
Though goals might not be top of Lamine Yamal's mind, he will point to his own career-best scoring feats of 25 strikes for club and country across 2025/26, including three in the Champions League knock-out stages. That made him the youngest-ever player to reach the 40-goal tally for Barca, an impressive feat considering the esteemed company he sits among. Only one of those quarter-century of goals came at the World Cup but his tournament, much like his season, was not lacking in the kind of entertainment, energy and stepovers which he feels, and many will agree, should lead to a Ballon d'Or victory.
He would become the youngest ever winner should he get his hands on the trophy in October but that should count for him, rather than against him, given the feats he has hit while spending every game bar the World Cup semi-final and final as an 18-year-old last season. If you're good enough, you're old enough - and there's already no question in this case.Ron Walker This one feels like it has to be inevitable at some point, right? The fact that Kylian Mbappe has competed in two World Cup finals - one of which he won and the other he scored a hat-trick in - and still has yet to be recognised as the best player in the world, seems incredible.
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