Milan, 26 Oct. (LaPresse) – English striker Harry Kane has won the 2026 Ballon d’Or. He succeeds France’s Ousmane Dembelé of PSG. The announcement was made during a gala evening at the London Palladium. For the first time in its history, the ceremony moved from Paris to the British capital, in tribute to Stanley Matthews, a British football legend and the first winner of the award in 1956. The Bayern Munich centre-forward, the first Englishman to win the award since Michael Owen in 2001, pipped Barcelona’s Spanish striker Lamine Yamal and Real Madrid’s Frenchman Kylian Mbappé to the post in a thrilling finale. Kane is breaking record after record in Germany and has won the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich. He was also one of the standout performers at the World Cup, where England finished third. Last month, he became the fastest player to reach 100 goals in the German league, achieving this milestone in just 98 appearances. The award was decided by a jury of journalists representing each of the top 100 nations in the FIFA rankings. The official voting period ran from 3 August 2025 to 19 July 2026.
Harry Kane wins the 2026 Ballon d’Or, beating Yamal and Mbappé
Milan, 26 Oct. (LaPresse) – English striker Harry Kane has won the 2026 Ballon d’Or. He succeeds France’s Ousmane Dembelé of PSG. The announcement was made during a gala evening at the London Palladium. For the first time in its history, the ceremony moved from Paris to the British capital, in tribute to Stanley Matthews, a British football legend and the first winner of the award in 1956. The Bayern Munich centre-forward, the first Englishman to win the award since Michael Owen in 2001, pipped Barcelona’s Spanish striker Lamine Yamal and Real Madrid’s Frenchman Kylian Mbappé to the post in a thrilling finale. Kane is breaking record after record in Germany and has won the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich. He was also one of the standout performers at the World Cup, where England finished third. Last month, he became the fastest player to reach 100 goals in the German league, achieving this milestone in just 98 appearances. The award was decided by a jury of journalists representing each of the top 100 nations in the FIFA rankings. The official voting period ran from 3 August 2025 to 19 July 2026.