Harry Kane won the Ballon d’Or by one of the tightest margins ever, according to the official voting numbers.
Harry Kane won the 2026 men’s Ballon d’Or by a narrow 28-point lead over Kylian Mbappe. The Bayern Munich and England striker lifted the trophy for the first time at the London Palladium on Monday night.
France Football’s editor-in-chief said the gap between Kane and Mbappe was very small, even less than the 41-point difference Rodri had over Vinicius Junior in 2024.
The official voting numbers for the top 10 men’s and women’s players were shared by L’Equipe. Each of the 150 journalists—100 for the men’s award, 50 for the women’s—had to pick their top 10 players from a list of 30 nominees for each category.
Points were given as 15, 12, 10, 8, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 for places one through ten, with a max of 1,500 points possible. Players were judged on their 2025/26 season performances. For example, Rodri was chosen for what he did with Manchester City and Spain before joining Barcelona.
Kane scored 1,055 points—over two-thirds of the max—while Mbappe was close behind with 1,027. Kane was picked first by 40 of the 100 journalists, and Mbappe by 23, according to L’Equipe. Lamine Yamal took third place with 881 points, a good distance behind the top two.
Here’s the top 10 for the men’s Ballon d’Or:
1) Harry Kane (Bayern Munich and England) – 1,055 points
2) Kylian Mbappe (Real Madrid and France) – 1,027 points
3) Lamine Yamal (Barcelona and Spain) – 881 points
4) Rodri (Manchester City and Spain) – 726 points
5) Lionel Messi (Inter Miami and Argentina) – 612 points
6) Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Paris Saint-Germain and Georgia) – 541 points
7) Ousmane Dembele (Paris Saint-Germain and France) – 418 points
8) Erling Haaland (Manchester City and Norway) – 378 points
9) Michael Olise (Bayern Munich and France) – 296 points
10) Fabian Ruiz (Paris Saint-Germain and Spain) – 201 points
On the women’s side, Alexia Putellas won her third Ballon d’Or with a bit more space between her and the runner-up. The Spain midfielder, now at London City Lionesses but formerly with Barcelona, earned 618 points. She finished 86 points ahead of her old teammate Ewa Pajor, who got 532 points. The top possible score was 750.
Third place was very close, with Manchester City’s Bunny Shaw on 334 points and Lyon’s Melchie Dumornay just behind on 332. There was also only one point difference between fifth-place Patri Guijarro and seventh-place Pernille Harder.
Here’s the top 10 for the women’s Ballon d’Or:
1) Alexia Putellas (Barcelona and Spain) – 618 points
2) Ewa Pajor (Barcelona and Poland) – 532 points
3) Bunny Shaw (Manchester City and Jamaica) – 334 points
4) Melchie Dumornay (OL Lyon and Haiti) – 332 points
5) Patri Guijarro (Barcelona and Spain) – 221 points
6) Caroline Graham Hansen (Barcelona and Norway) – 220 points
7) Pernille Harder (Bayern Munich and Denmark) – 220 points
8) Claudia Pina (Barcelona and Spain) – 155 points
9) Alessia Russo (Arsenal and England) – 155 points
10) Temwa Chawinga (Kansas City Current and Malawi) – 113 points