The 2026 Ballon d’Or ceremony will take place at 20:00 GMT on Monday, 26 October, at London’s Palladium Theatre, and will hand out 13 trophies to athletes and coaches across 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 fans.
When and where is the ceremony?
It is the first time the event will be held in London. Uefa says the move 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 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 and published a couple of months before the ceremony.
That 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. 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. Jurors are told to consider only the most recent season, but his 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. They claimed bronze by winning the third-place match, and he finished as the tournament’s joint-fifth top 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 and 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 both reaching the World Cup final and winning the third-place match, losing 6-4 to England in the latter. Captain Mbappe nonetheless 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 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, second on the top scorers list behind Mbappe, while both players shared the lead for assists with four each. With 29 goals in 32 appearances helping Inter Miami to second place in 2026, individual and club performance are both still in the legend’s favour. The 2024 Ballon d’Or winner has been hampered by injury since, however. Ruled out for 220 days after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament for Manchester City during the 2024-25 campaign, and sidelined for a further few months in 2025-26 with knee problems, Spain captain Rodri has not had nearly as much game time as most of his fellow nominees. Leading his side to World Cup glory could still carry considerable voting weight with the jurors, and Rodri was also named the tournament’s best player. That is unlikely to be enough to seal the main prize, but it has been a positive year for him.
Manchester City striker 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-finals. He was also the Premier League’s top scorer in 2025-26 with 27 goals, and finished the season with 38 club goals across all competitions. He also became the fastest player to reach 50 Champions League goals, taking just 49 games to do so.
Full list of men’s candidates
- 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 that could 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 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 was named player of the tournament. 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’s top scorer for a third consecutive season and appears well ahead of her peers in goalscoring. Her 21 league goals were eight more than closest rival Alessia Russo, and her four assists helped Manchester City win their first title in a decade. She finished the domestic campaign with two goals in the FA Cup final to seal the 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 qualifying matches.
Despite being sidelined for two months with injury, Ewa Pajor keeps her name in contention thanks to her 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 Putellas. She also scored 16 goals in Liga F to finish as the league’s second-highest scorer.
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, she scored five goals in the competition and was named in the team of the tournament.
Full list of women’s 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. The Ballon d’Or Feminin has been awarded since 2018, and Spain’s Aitana Bonmati has won it more than anyone, three times.
Recent men’s winners
- 2025 – Ousmane Dembele (Paris St-Germain/France)
- 2024 – Rodri (Manchester City/Spain)
- 2023 – Lionel Messi (Inter Miami/Argentina)
- 2022 – Karim Benzema (Real Madrid/France)
- 2021 – Lionel Messi (Paris St-Germain/Argentina)
- 2019 – Lionel Messi (Barcelona/Argentina)
- 2018 – Luka Modric (Real Madrid/Croatia)
- 2017 – Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid/Portugal)
- 2016 – Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid/Portugal)
- 2015 – Lionel Messi (Barcelona/Argentina)
- 2014 – Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid/Portugal)
- 2013 – Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid/Portugal)
- 2012 – Lionel Messi (Barcelona/Argentina)
- 2011 – Lionel Messi (Barcelona/Argentina)
- 2010 – Lionel Messi (Barcelona/Argentina)
- 2009 – Lionel Messi (Barcelona/Argentina)
- 2008 – Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United/Portugal)
- 2007 – Kaka (AC Milan/Brazil)
- 2006 – Fabio Cannavaro (Real Madrid/Italy)
- 2005 – Ronaldinho (Barcelona/Brazil)
- 2004 – Andriy Shevchenko (AC Milan/Ukraine)
- 2003 – Pavel Nedved (Juventus/Czech Republic)
- 2002 – Ronaldo (Real Madrid/Brazil)
- 2001 – Michael Owen (Liverpool/England)
- 2000 – Luis Figo (Real Madrid/Portugal)
- 1999 – Rivaldo (Barcelona/Brazil)
- 1998 – Zinedine Zidane (Juventus/France)
- 1997 – Ronaldo (Inter Milan/Brazil)
- 1996 – Matthias Sammer (Borussia Dortmund/Germany)
Recent women’s winners
- 2025 – Aitana Bonmati (Spain/Barcelona)
- 2024 – Aitana Bonmati (Spain/Barcelona)
- 2023 – Aitana Bonmati (Spain/Barcelona)
- 2022 – Alexia Putellas (Spain/Barcelona)
- 2021 – Alexia Putellas (Spain/Barcelona)
- 2019 – Megan Rapinoe (USA/Seattle Reign)
- 2018 – Ada Hegerberg (Norway/Lyon)
What awards will be given out?
The men’s award has been handed out for 70 years, and 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)
How to watch
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.