Here’s the full list of rules every Ballon d’Or voter needs to follow – and how important each one is!
The winners of the 2026 men’s and women’s Ballon d’Or will be announced at a special ceremony at the London Palladium on Monday. Each of the 150 voters will have followed clear rules when picking their top 10 players.
For the men’s award, stars like Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe, and Lamine Yamal are all hoping to win for the first time. On the women’s side, Alexia Putellas is the favorite to win her third Ballon d’Or, tying a record.
The voting is done by journalists: 100 from the top FIFA nations for the men’s prize, and 50 for the women’s. But choosing a top 10 isn’t always easy, even with clear guidelines.
The Ballon d’Or goes to the best player over the past 12 months, based on several factors. Judges follow three main rules when voting. The most important is ‘individual performance, skill, and impact.’ Next, they look at team success and titles won. Lastly, if players are still tied, they consider sportsmanship, respect for others, and fair play.
Voters only consider what players did up to July 19, 2026—the date of the World Cup final. So, even though Lamine Yamal has had a fantastic season for Barcelona since then, those achievements won’t count for this award.
Points are given to players based on their ranking in each vote: 10th place gets 1 point, going up to 6th place with 5 points. Fifth place earns 7 points, fourth place 8, third place 10, second place 12, and first place 15 points.
Sometimes, ties happen. In the past, players like William Saliba and Sadio Mane tied for 29th in the men’s votes, and three players shared 28th place in the women’s. There are no tiebreakers for lower spots.
But if there’s a tie for first place, France Football steps in with a tiebreaker. They count how many first-place votes each player received, then second-place votes if needed, and so on until a winner is picked.
The voting rules have changed over time. Since 2007, any player worldwide can win. Before that, only players in European clubs, or before 1995 only Europeans, were eligible. Also, the rule letting every national team captain and coach vote, which ran from 2007 to 2015, has been removed.