Harry Kane claims men’s Ballon d’Or to end England’s 25-year wait for winner

Harry Kane is the Ballon d’Or winner for 2026, the first Englishman to win football’s most prestigious individual trophy in 25 years.

Two hours into a lavishly excitable ceremony at the Palladium Theatre in London, Kane’s name emerged from the final envelope to wild cheers inside the auditorium. The women’s Ballon d’Or, awarded moments earlier, was won by Alexia Putellas of London City Lionesses, a third Ballon, five years on from her first in the colours of Barcelona.

In the men’s voting, Kane finished ahead of co-favourites Lamine Yamal of Barcelona and Kylian Mbappé of Real Madrid, an outcome that will perhaps cause the familiar consternation among the hierarchy of those clubs, not to mention the vast online fan army attached to the superstar players in Kane’s wake.

But Kane is also a fully deserving winner of football’s ultimate gong. The L’Équipe-sponsored trophy is awarded by a vote of journalists and administrators across the footballing super-scape. For Kane, it is reward for a year during which he has won the European Golden Boot, played a major role in Bayern Munich’s Bundesliga title, captained England to a World Cup semi-final, and above all shown himself to be a wonderfully humble superstar player.

“It was really tough this year, the incredible players I was up against,” Kane said as he received the trophy, going on to congratulate everyone else nominated for anything else, and thank pretty much everyone he has ever played with.

“I am almost speechless. Being here in London has made it extra special,” he added.

As a pure goalscorer, his numbers are astonishing this year, with 89 goals for club and country since the start of August 2025. At Bayern, Kane has also become a darling of the Bundesliga for his all-round game, creativity, intelligence and professionalism. Bayern paid a record €100m fee up front for Kane three years ago, a transfer that broke the club’s usual recruitment patterns and raised some concerns, given Kane was 30 at the time.

It is a measure of his contribution on and off the pitch that this outlay is now seen as entirely vindicated. As a Ballon d’Or winner, Kane now enters rarefied company, heir to a prize that revolved around the Messi-Ronaldo two-hander for so many years, and which promises not just a form of sporting ultimacy but a vast uplift in current and future commercial earnings.

More widely, the award is a coronational moment for Kane himself, 16 years into a professional career that has taken in loan spells at Leyton Orient and Millwall, running himself into the ground to make it in the Premier League, and now, for posterity, into the lineage of elite footballers.

Earlier this month, Kane equalled England’s all-time caps record, while nudging his international goal tally on to 91 in 125 appearances. Aged 33, he still has a home Euros two years from now in his sights as England’s captain and a final opportunity for a different kind of footballing immortality.