The 2026 Ballon d’Or ceremony will hand out 13 trophies to athletes and coaches across both the men’s and women’s game. Back for its 70th year, the ceremony will once again recognise the best footballing talent in the world.
Run by France Football magazine since 1956, the Ballon d’Or is widely viewed as the pinnacle of individual prizes for professional footballers worldwide. As ever, the shortlists for the biggest awards of the night have sparked plenty of debate among football fans.
When and where is the Ballon d’Or ceremony?
The 2026 Ballon d’Or ceremony will take place at 20:00 GMT on Monday, 26 October, at London’s Palladium Theatre. It is the first time the event will be held in London, a move Uefa says is intended to pay tribute to the inaugural winner, England’s Stanley Matthews, who won the award in 1956.
The ceremony is traditionally held in France and has taken place at Paris’ Theatre du Chatelet since 2019.
How is the winner decided?
A dual voting system determines the Ballon d’Or winners. For the men’s award, a finalised shortlist of 30 players is selected by a team of journalists from France Football and L’Equipe newspaper. That shortlist is published a couple of months before the ceremony.
The shortlist is then ranked by 100 journalists from around the world, and their rankings are combined to decide the winner. Jurors are instructed to weigh three factors when ranking players. The Ballon d’Or regulations list them in order of importance, beginning with individual performances, decisive and impressive character, followed by collective performances and titles won.
Who are the favourites for the men’s prize?
A ceremony held in the months after a major tournament always adds extra intrigue, and few tournaments are bigger than the World Cup. This means jurors can take international performance into account when ranking the shortlisted players.
With Spain victorious at the 2026 World Cup, the six Spanish internationals on the shortlist could see their rankings boosted. However, outstanding individual performances for club and country, even without silverware for the latter, have also put players such as Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland into contention.
England captain Kane scored 73 goals across club and international competitions in the 2025-26 season. Although jurors are told to consider only the most recent season, his 156 goals in 158 games for Bayern Munich since 2023 have lifted him to seventh on the club’s all-time top scorers list. He has led the Bundesliga’s scoring charts for three consecutive seasons and was Europe’s top overall club goalscorer for 2025-26. Kane also led England to their best World Cup finish since they won the tournament in 1966. England claimed bronze after winning the third-place match, and Kane finished as the tournament’s fifth-highest scorer.
Lamine Yamal has twice won the men’s Kopa Trophy for the best player under 21, taking the prize in both 2024 and 2025. He also placed second in the main rankings in 2025, and he is once again in contention for both the main prize and the under-21 category. The 19-year-old was a key part of Spain’s World Cup-winning side and Barcelona’s La Liga and Spanish Super Cup-winning season, despite missing a number of matches through injury. His 24 goals and 18 assists across all competitions for Barcelona included eight in the Champions League, putting him ahead of Mbappe as the competition’s highest-scoring under-19.
France fell short of making the World Cup final and of winning the third-place match, losing 6-4 to England. Captain Mbappe still took home the tournament’s Golden Boot after scoring 10 times, becoming the competition’s all-time top scorer in the process. Despite a lack of silverware for Real Madrid, he also scored 42 goals in 44 appearances for his club across all competitions in 2025-26.
While his years of complete Ballon d’Or dominance may be in the past, Lionel Messi remains in the mix for a high ranking after captaining Argentina to second place at the World Cup. He scored eight goals in the competition, placing him second on the top scorers list behind Mbappe, and the pair were joint-top for assists with four each. With 29 goals in 32 appearances helping Inter Miami to second place in 2026, club performance also remains a factor for the footballing legend.
The 2024 Ballon d’Or winner, Rodri, has endured consecutive seasons marred by injury. He was ruled out for 220 days for Manchester City after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament during the 2024-25 campaign, and he missed further months in 2025-26 with knee problems. As captain of Spain, he has not had nearly as much game time as most of his fellow nominees. However, leading his side to World Cup victory could carry considerable weight with the jurors, and Rodri was also named best player of the tournament. That is unlikely to be enough to seal the main prize, but it has been a positive year for him.
Manchester City striker Erling Haaland helped guide Norway to new heights, scoring seven goals to finish as the tournament’s joint-third top scorer as Norway reached their first World Cup quarter-finals. He was also the Premier League’s top scorer in 2025-26 with 27 goals, and he scored 38 club goals across all competitions. He became the fastest player to reach 50 Champions League goals, doing so in just 49 games.
Full list of candidates for the men’s Ballon d’Or:
- Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid/England)
- Pau Cubarsi (Barcelona/Spain)
- Marc Cucurella (Real Madrid/Spain)
- Ousmane Dembele (Paris St-Germain/France)
- Luis Diaz (Bayern Munich/Colombia)
- Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United/Portugal)
- Gabriel (Arsenal/Brazil)
- Erling Haaland (Manchester City/Norway)
- Achraf Hakimi (Paris St-Germain/Morocco)
- Harry Kane (Bayern Munich/England)
- Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Paris St-Germain/Georgia)
- Lamine Yamal (Barcelona/Spain)
- Sadio Mane (Al-Nassr/Senegal)
- Marquinhos (Paris St-Germain/Brazil)
- Lautaro Martinez (Inter Milan/Argentina)
- Kylian Mbappe (Real Madrid/France)
- Nuno Mendes (Paris St-Germain/Portugal)
- Lionel Messi (Inter Miami/Argentina)
- Joao Neves (Paris St-Germain/Portugal)
- Michael Olise (Bayern Munich/France)
- Willian Pacho (Paris St-Germain/Ecuador)
- Julian Quinones (Al-Qadsiah/Mexico)
- Declan Rice (Arsenal/England)
- Rodri (Barcelona/Spain)
- Fabian Ruiz (Paris St-Germain/Spain)
- William Saliba (Arsenal/France)
- Ferran Torres (Paris St-Germain/Spain)
- Dayot Upamecano (Bayern Munich/France)
- Vinicius Jr (Real Madrid/Brazil)
- Vitinha (Paris St-Germain/Portugal)
Who are the favourites for the women’s prize?
Barcelona have dominated the women’s Ballon d’Or in recent years, but could that change in 2026? With no major international competitions in the women’s game during the current voting period, jurors can look to European qualifying matches as well as club performance when allocating their votes.
Current holder Aitana Bonmati has been sidelined by injury for most of the season, so she will not be able to defend her title for a record fourth time.
When it comes to club success, it is hard to ask much more of Alexia Putellas, who captained Barcelona to a continental quadruple in 2025-26, winning the Liga F, Copa de la Reina, Spanish Super Cup and Champions League. She became Barcelona’s joint-second top scorer of all time after scoring two goals in the Champions League semi-final in May, and she earned the player of the tournament award in the process. The two-time winner could equal Bonmati’s record of three awards, having also been a key part of Spain’s Nations League-winning side.
Khadija Shaw has been the WSL’s top scorer for a third consecutive season and appears well ahead of her peers when it comes to goalscoring. Her 21 league goals, eight more than closest rival Alessia Russo, and four assists helped Manchester City to their first title in a decade. She finished the campaign with two goals in the FA Cup final to seal the domestic double. The PFA and FWA women’s footballer of the year also remains Jamaica’s all-time top goalscorer as she captains them through their 2027 World Cup qualifiers.
Despite being sidelined for two months with injury, Ewa Pajor keeps her name in contention after a strong showing during Barcelona’s trophy-laden 2025-26 campaign. She finished as the Champions League’s top scorer with 11 goals, leaving her joint-second on the all-time list with former team-mate Putellas. She also scored 16 goals in Liga F to finish as the league’s second-highest scorer of the season.
Melchie Dumornay played a major part in Lyon’s domestic treble in 2025-26, as they won the league title, the Coupe de France and the Coupe de la Ligue. The France midfielder scored 22 goals and provided 12 assists overall. Although Lyon lost to quadruple-winning Barcelona in the Champions League final, Dumornay scored five Champions League goals and was named in the team of the tournament.
Full list of Ballon d’Or Feminin nominees:
- Selma Bacha (Lyon/France)
- Barbra Banda (Orlando Pride/Zambia)
- Klara Buhl (Bayern Munich/Germany)
- Esmee Brugts (Barcelona/Netherlands)
- Mariona Caldentey (Arsenal/Spain)
- Scarlett Camberos (Club America/Mexico)
- Kerstin Casparij (Manchester City/Netherlands)
- Temwa Chawinga (Kansas City Current/Malawi)
- Cata Coll (Barcelona/Spain)
- Melchie Dumornay (Lyon/Haiti)
- Caroline Graham Hansen (Barcelona/Norway)
- Alex Greenwood (Manchester City/England)
- Patri Guijarro (Barcelona/Spain)
- Pernille Harder (Bayern Munich/Denmark)
- Yui Hasegawa (Manchester City/Japan)
- Rose Lavelle (Gotham FC/United States)
- Mapi Leon (London City Lionesses/Spain)
- Lorena (Kansas City Current/Brazil)
- Melvine Malard (Chelsea/France)
- Manaka Matsukubo (Chelsea/Japan)
- Vivianne Miedema (Manchester City/Netherlands)
- Ewa Pajor (Barcelona/Poland)
- Claudia Pina (Barcelona/Spain)
- Alexia Putellas (London City Lionesses/Spain)
- Wendie Renard (Lyon/France)
- Alessia Russo (Arsenal/England)
- Khadija Shaw (Manchester City/Jamaica)
- Momoko Tanikawa (Bayern Munich/Japan)
- Caroline Weir (Lyon/Scotland)
- Tessa Wullaert (Como/Belgium)
Who are the previous winners?
Lionel Messi holds the record for most men’s Ballon d’Or wins with eight, and also holds the record for most consecutive wins with four. Cristiano Ronaldo is second overall with five wins. Between 2008 and 2015, the pair dominated the award.
The Ballon d’Or Feminin has been running since 2018, and Spain’s Aitana Bonmati has won the trophy the most times, with three wins.
Recent men’s winners include Ousmane Dembele in 2025, Rodri in 2024, Messi in 2023 and Karim Benzema in 2022. Recent women’s winners include Bonmati in 2023, 2024 and 2025, and Alexia Putellas in 2021 and 2022.
What awards will be given out?
While the men’s award has been handed out for 70 years, additional awards have been added to the ceremony over time. There will be 13 awards presented on the night:
- Men’s and Women’s Ballon d’Or
- Men’s and Women’s Kopa Trophy (for players under 21 years old)
- Men’s and Women’s Yashin Trophy (for best goalkeeper)
- Men’s and Women’s Gerd Muller Trophy (for best striker)
- Men’s and Women’s Johan Cruyff Trophy (for best coach)
- Men’s and Women’s Club of the Year
- Socrates Award (for humanitarian and societal causes)
Dazn will broadcast the full ceremony for viewers in the UK.