Harry Kane has become the first Englishman in 25 years to win the Ballon d’Or, beating Kylian Mbappé and Lamine Yamal to claim football’s most prestigious individual award.
Kane was presented with the prize — which is organised by the magazine France Football and voted on by 100 journalists from around the world — on Monday at a star-studded gala in London, where he was rewarded for a historic season for club and country.
The 33-eyar-old starred for Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga and the Champions League and led England to the World Cup semifinals, scoring 73 goals in the process. He is the fifth English player to ever receive the honour, and the first since Michael Owen in 2005.
“Thank you to everyone who voted for me, I can imagine it was tough, so thank you to everyone who voted for me,” an emotional Kane said on stage at the London Palladium Theatre.
Rival Mbappé became the all-time top scorer in World Cup history this summer, with 22 goals, 10 of them scored at this year’s edition, while Yamal won the tournament with Spain.
Members of the Ballon d’Or jury choose 10 players, in order, from a 30-player shortlist, with the award going to the player who receives the most points overall.
Kane follows Ousmane Dembélé, who won the prize in 2025, and Rodri who won it in 2024.
For the last two decades, the award was dominated by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, who top the all-time rankings with eight and five Ballons d’Or respectively.
The Ballon d’Or is seen as the greatest individual prize in football, alongside FIFA’s The Best award.
Among the other categories in Monday’s ceremony, Yamal was named the Men’s Young Player of the Year after starring for Barcelona in LaLiga, and for Spain at the World Cup.
“I’d have liked it to be [teammate Pau] Cubarsi,” Yamal said, during a brief speech. “This prize should have been for him. He deserves it.”
Spain’s Luis de la Fuente won Coach of the Year after guiding Spain to the World Cup, and his first-choice keeper, Unai Simón, was named Men’s Goalkeeper of the Year.
