Ballon d'Or 2026
The 2026 Ballon d'Or, the 70th edition, will be handed out on October 26, 2026 in London. Ousmane Dembélé won the 2025 men's award; with the World Cup shaping voting, favorites for 2026 include Kane, Olise, Yamal, Vitinha and Mbappé.
The context
The 2026 Ballon d’Or marks the award’s 70th edition, and it will be presented on October 26, 2026 in London, a first for the city and a tribute to England’s Sir Stanley Matthews, who won the very first Ballon d’Or in 1956. The prize honours the best footballer of the season based on a vote by international journalists.
The reigning men’s winner is Ousmane Dembélé, who took the 2025 award for PSG and France ahead of Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal and his club-mate Vitinha; Aitana Bonmatí claimed a third straight women’s title. That sets up a wide-open 2026 race. Early contenders span Bayern’s Harry Kane and Michael Olise, PSG’s Dembélé, Vitinha and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Arsenal’s Declan Rice and Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal.
The wild card is the World Cup. Because the 2026 tournament runs before the October ceremony, it falls squarely in the voting window and could decide the award: a deep run, above all for a champion nation’s talisman like Kylian Mbappé or Erling Haaland, has historically tipped tight Ballon d’Or races. Club seasons still count, but this year the trophy may well be won on the international stage.