Ballon d'Or 2026
POST-WORLD CUP UPDATE (Jul 23): Lamine Yamal is now the frontrunner after Spain won the 2026 World Cup (Yamal named Best Young Player). Rodri won the Golden Ball. Mbappé won the Golden Boot (10 goals). The 2026 Ballon d'Or ceremony is October 26, 2026 in London. Sources: FIFA, Goal.com, FourFourTwo.
The context
World Cup update (July 23, 2026). The 2026 FIFA World Cup has reshaped the Ballon d’Or race significantly. Spain won the tournament on July 19, defeating Argentina 1-0 after extra time (Ferran Torres, 106’). Rodri (Manchester City/Spain) won the Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player. Lamine Yamal (Barcelona/Spain, 18) won Best Young Player and was the defining attacking force of Spain’s entire campaign. Kylian Mbappé won the Golden Boot with 10 goals but France fell in the semi-finals without individual tournament honours beyond that. Post-tournament consensus rankings for the 2026 Ballon d’Or: 1. Yamal (WC winner, Best Young Player, outstanding club season with Barcelona) 2. Rodri (Golden Ball, WC winner, Ballon d’Or 2024 holder) 3. Mbappé (Golden Boot, Real Madrid form) 4. Kane / Olise / Dembélé / Bellingham / Rice / Haaland / Kvaratskhelia (club season contenders). Sources: FIFA, Goal.com, FourFourTwo.
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. Before the World Cup, the 2026 race had been wide open, with early contenders spanning Bayern’s Harry Kane and Michael Olise, PSG’s Dembélé, Vitinha and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Arsenal’s Declan Rice and Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal.
The World Cup has now resolved much of that uncertainty. Spain’s title run, with Lamine Yamal as its driving force and Rodri as its most decorated individual, has created a clear hierarchy. A player who wins the World Cup with their nation and collects an individual tournament award has historically taken the Ballon d’Or in the same year, and that combination now applies directly to Yamal (Best Young Player) and Rodri (Golden Ball). The October ceremony will still account for the full club season, but the default expectation as of July 23 is that Yamal or Rodri will lift the 70th Ballon d’Or.