Harry Kane is the best footballer in the world. The England captain won the men's Ballon d'Or for the first time in his career on Monday night, taking the golden trophy from Brazil legend Ronaldo at the London Palladium as the crowd that had chanted his name all evening erupted. At 33, Kane becomes the first Englishman to win the award in 25 years, since Michael Owen in 2001, at the 70th edition of the ceremony — held in London for the first time, in honour of Sir Stanley Matthews, the first ever winner in 1956.
The numbers behind the win are staggering. Kane scored 73 goals for club and country in 2025-26 — 61 of them in 51 games for Bayern Munich — as Bayern won the Bundesliga and the German Cup in a three-trophy season. He scored six times at the World Cup in the summer, driving England to third place, their best finish since 1966, and he did it all after years of being called the finest striker of his generation without the game's biggest individual honour to show for it.
It was a double celebration on the night. Earlier in the ceremony, Kane had already been named the year's best striker, receiving the Gerd Müller Trophy from Alan Shearer after another season of relentless scoring, with Mexico's Charlyn Corral taking the women's striker award. By the time Ronaldo opened the final envelope, Kane had two prizes — and the one that defines careers.
The men he beat underline what the voters decided. Lamine Yamal, Barcelona's 19-year-old sensation, won the World Cup with Spain and the league title in a season that made him the favourite of many, and he left London with the young talent award for the third straight year. Kylian Mbappé finished the World Cup as its Golden Boot winner and its all-time top scorer, and topped the scoring charts in Spain and in the Champions League — but Real Madrid's trophyless season left his case resting on individual brilliance alone. The jury of journalists from the world's top 100 football nations chose the complete body of work: goals, trophies and a World Cup run, all in one season.
Kane had arrived at the Palladium admitting he was feeling the occasion. "I'm a bit nervous, I'm not going to lie," he said on the red carpet. "It's different to a big match because it's out of my control, you're kind of just waiting to find out who wins. Of course, being here in London, seeing fans and family, it's a special occasion — it will be a really special night if it goes my way. It would be an incredibly proud moment if I do achieve it." Looking back over the campaign, he said: "It was my best season for sure. I won three trophies with Bayern Munich and were really close in the Champions League and World Cup. If I had won those, it would have been guaranteed, for sure. But that's football; there are highs and there are lows."
Those who played with and against him had made the case before the voters did. England team-mate Declan Rice called him "the clear winner," saying: "His numbers speak for themselves. The year he's had has been remarkable." Karl-Heinz Rummenigge — the last Bayern player to win the Ballon d'Or, back in 1981 — pointed to the scale of the scoring: Kane's 73 goals, he said, are a figure only Lionel Messi has bettered in a single year this century. "This is the benchmark," Rummenigge said.
The ceremony had nearly been spoiled hours before it began. On Monday afternoon, the award's official website published an article declaring Kane the winner — then similar articles naming Mbappé and Yamal as winners appeared and spread across social media. All of them were taken down, and the organisers said profiles had been prepared for all 30 nominees and were published by mistake, insisting they revealed nothing about the real result. For once, the leaked name turned out to be the right one.
In the women's award, Alexia Putellas won the Ballon d'Or for the third time, ahead of Ewa Pajor and Khadija Shaw, reclaiming the prize she won in 2021 and 2022. The rest of the night's honours went to Spain's World Cup-winning coach Luis de la Fuente and Barcelona's Pere Romeu as coaches of the year, Unai Simón and Cata Coll as the year's best goalkeepers, Bukayo Saka, who took the Socrates Award for his humanitarian work, Paris Saint-Germain as men's club of the year and Barcelona as women's club of the year.
For Kane, the award closes the last argument about his career. He left Tottenham as one of the Premier League's greatest scorers without a single team trophy; in Munich he has won the lot domestically, broken scoring records that stood for decades, captained his country to a World Cup semi-final run — and now, at 33, holds the prize Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo passed between themselves for a generation. England waited 25 years for another Ballon d'Or winner. On Monday night in London, the wait ended with the captain.
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