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. It takes place at 20:00 GMT on Monday, 26 October, at London’s Palladium Theatre.
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 of contenders for the biggest awards of the night have been a hot topic 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 which Uefa says pays tribute to the inaugural winner, England’s Stanley Matthews, who won 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 Ballon d’Or winners. For the men’s award, a finalised shortlist of 30 players is decided by a team of journalists from both 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 take several factors into account. The Ballon d’Or regulations list the following two in order of importance:
- Individual performances, decisive and impressive character
- Collective performances and titles won
Who are the favourites for the men’s prize?
A ceremony that lands in the months following a major tournament always provides extra intrigue, and few tournaments are more major than the World Cup. 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.
Outstanding individual performances for club and country, even without silverware for the national side, 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. Jurors are told to consider only the most recent season, but Kane’s 156 goals in 158 games for Bayern Munich since 2023 have lifted him to seventh on the German club’s all-time top scorer 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 won the third-place match to take bronze, and Kane finished as the tournament’s fifth-highest scorer.
Lamine Yamal has twice won the men’s Kopa Trophy for best player under the age of 21, taking the prize at both the 2024 and 2025 awards. He also placed second in the main rankings in 2025, so 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, which put him ahead of Mbappe as the competition’s highest-scoring under-19.
France fell short of both reaching the World Cup final and winning the third-place match, losing 6-4 to England. Captain Kylian Mbappe nonetheless took home the tournament’s Golden Boot after scoring 10 times, becoming the contest’s all-time top scorer in the process. Despite a lack of silverware for Real Madrid, Mbappe 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 has still put his name 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 behind Mbappe on the top scorers list, while both players were joint-top for assists with four each. He also scored 29 goals in 32 appearances to help Inter Miami to their current second-place position in 2026, where the most recent season runs from February to December.
Rodri, the 2024 Ballon d’Or winner, has had consecutive seasons marred by injury since taking the trophy. He was ruled out for 220 days for Manchester City after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament during the 2024-25 campaign, and he spent a further few months out in 2025-26 with knee problems. The Spain captain has therefore not had nearly as much game time as most of his fellow nominees. However, leading his side to World Cup victory could carry significant voting weight with the jurors, and Rodri was also named the 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 ever World Cup quarter-final. 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 also 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 Ballon d’Or holder Aitana Bonmati has been sidelined by injury for most of the season since her win, 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 than captaining 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 her former team-mate 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 top scorer for a third consecutive season and appears well ahead of her peers in 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 season 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 qualification matches.
Despite being out for two months with injury, Ewa Pajor has kept her place in contention for this year’s Ballon d’Or with 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.
Lyon secured a domestic treble in 2025-26, thanks in no small part to Melchie Dumornay, who helped the club win the league title as well as the Coupe de France and Coupe de la Ligue. The France midfielder scored 22 goals and provided 12 assists overall. Despite losing 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, taking the trophy eight times, and he also holds the record for most consecutive wins with four. Cristiano Ronaldo is second overall with five wins. The Ballon d’Or Feminin has been running since 2018, and Spain’s Aitana Bonmati is the player with the most wins, having been awarded the trophy three times.
Recent men’s winners include Ousmane Dembele (2025), Rodri (2024), Lionel Messi (2023), Karim Benzema (2022) and Lionel Messi (2021). Recent women’s winners include Aitana Bonmati (2025, 2024 and 2023) and Alexia Putellas (2022 and 2021).
What awards will be given out?
While the men’s award has been given out for 70 years, additional awards have been added to the ceremony over time. There will be 13 awards presented at the ceremony:
- 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)
How to follow the ceremony
Live text updates from the ceremony will be available all evening, covering every award. Streaming platform Dazn will broadcast the full ceremony for viewers in the UK.