Harry Kane won the 2026 Ballon d’Or with just a few points ahead of second place Kylian Mbappé. A small difference, but it is not the smallest in history.
Only 28 points separate the French striker from the English one from Bayern. As announced at last Monday’s ceremony in London, the difference is indeed smaller than in 2024, when Spaniard Rodri edged out Vinicius by 41 points. With such a small difference, it is obvious that everything was decided on the basis of a few votes of the jury of 100 international journalists. Starting from 2022, each voter must select his top 10 and rank the players in descending order, giving 15 points to his favorite, 12 points to the second, then 10, 8, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point, writes News.ro.
But, although it is small, the difference between Mbappé and Kane is still not the smallest in history. In 1996, after his outstanding Euro win with Germany, Matthias Sammer beat Brazil’s Ronaldo by a single point (144 votes to 143). The same happened in 1966, the year England won the World Cup. The captain of the national team, Bobby Charlton, stole the prestigious prize from the Portuguese Eusébio by a single point. But, at that time, only 22 people voted.
In 1972, Franz Beckenbauer won his first Ballon d’Or by 2 points. Stanley Matthews in 1956 and Allan Simonsen in 1977 won with 3 votes. Incidentally, in 1977, Michel Platini finished in third place, just 4 points behind the Dane! But in the 21st century, the closest Ballon d’Or remains the one won by Lionel Messi in 2019. The Argentinian surpassed the defender from Liverpool, Virgil Van Dijk, by only 7 points.
The most interesting votes:
The French journalist put two players of the “Les Bleus” team in the first two places, Kylian Mbappé in the first place and Ousmane Dembélé, while Harry Kane only appears in the 6th place. England voted for Harry Kane, Morocco for Achraf Hakimi, Georgia for Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Argentina for Lionel Messi. As for Spain, although it was crowned world champion this summer, it did not put a player of the “La Roja” team in the foreground (Lamine Yamal is in 2nd place), but Kylian Mbappé, thanks to the vote of José Félix Diaz, a journalist at the daily… Madrid AS.
The Greek journalist, a fan of the Parisians, does not mention either Mbappé or Yamal
In second place in the general ranking, the captain of the French national team appears in the top 10 of all countries, with the exception of Scotland (which placed Upamecano in 6th place!), Ukraine and Greece. Greece has just been absent from the World Cup, and this is clearly felt in the vote of its journalist, who preferred the players from Paris Saint-Germain, the winners of the Champions League. While he awards the Ballon d’Or to Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Pacho appears in 3rd place. Joao Neves and Marquinhos occupy 5th and 9th places. If the Spaniards Rodri and Cucurella, world champions, are in 2nd and 4th places, let’s note the absence from this top 10 of Mbappé and Yamal, nothing less.
Curaçao awarded Olise the Ballon d’Or
Among the 23 journalists who voted for Kylian Mbappé (compared to 40 for Harry Kane), it is worth highlighting the elegant choice of the Paraguayan reporter, given that the World Cup Round of 16 match was particularly heated between the two teams, especially between the French striker and the South American defenders.
A surprise guest at the World Cup, Curaçao was visibly impressed by the performances of Michael Olise, who he placed at the top of his top 10. The Curaçao journalist also awarded William Saliba his only two points in the overall ranking.
The surprising choice of the Colombian journalist
Ukraine’s vote was also original. So, without Mbappé: Harry Kane is in 9th place, and Lamine Yamal in 7th place. So who forms the winning trio? Fabian Ruiz, who won it all with PSG and Spain, sits on the top step of the podium, ahead of his Barça compatriot Pau Cubarsi and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.
Finally, among the most surprising choices, a special mention goes to the Colombian journalist Pache Andrade, who had the audacity to include his compatriot Luis Díaz (8th place), the Ecuadorian Willian Pacho (9th place) and, above all, the Mexican Julián Quiñones (10th place) in his top 10.
As for Lamine Yamal, 13 journalists (from Mexico, Wales, Burkina Faso, Switzerland, Portugal, Turkey, Albania, Macedonia, Jordan, Algeria, Honduras, Tunisia and Cape Verde) ranked him first, 83 included him somewhere in their vote, and 4 left him out of the top 10 (Belarus, Cameroon, Croatia and Greece).
Kylian Mbappe, the striker from Real Madrid, took the first place in the ranking for 23 journalists, including from many important countries in Europe, such as Germany, Spain, France, Italy or the Netherlands, as well as from most African countries. Only three left it out of their list (Scotland, Greece and Ukraine).
As for the winner, Harry Kane, he was voted first by 40 journalists with significant influence in Europe, Asia and America, and only two left him off the list (Côte d’Ivoire and Mexico). Rodri, who finished fourth, was voted first by 10 journalists (South Korea, Croatia, United States, Guatemala, Iceland, Nigeria, Czech Republic, Serbia, Thailand and Vietnam). This confirms the fact that many votes were divided between the midfielder and Lamine, something that also happened in the case of the PSG players.
The journalist whose list came closest to the final results was Maciej Iwanski, from Poland, who ranked his top 5 candidates in the same order as the final ranking.
Romanian journalist Emanuel Rosu revealed that his podium was as follows: 1. Kylian Mbappe, 2. Harry Kane, 3. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia
