{"id":943512,"date":"2026-10-28T04:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T04:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/943512\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T04:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T04:02:10","slug":"football-news-2026-ballon-dor-award-harry-kane-analysis-opinion-lamine-yamal-lionel-messi-reaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/943512\/","title":{"rendered":"Football news 2026: Ballon d\u2019Or award; Harry Kane analysis, opinion; Lamine Yamal, Lionel Messi reaction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Socceroos<\/a> captain Craig Foster<\/a> is a huge admirer of England captain Harry Kane<\/a>, both on and off the field.<\/p>\n

But the Stan Sport expert says Kane was the \u201cwrong choice\u201d as Ballon d\u2019Or<\/a> winner on Tuesday (AEDT), arguing that Lamine Yamal<\/a> and Lionel Messi<\/a> were more deserving.<\/p>\n

\"Kane<\/p>\n

Harry Kane celebrates at the World Cup.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Kane was the first Englishman to win the coveted award<\/a> as the world\u2019s best men\u2019s footballer since Michael Owen in 2001.<\/p>\n

France captain Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 finished runner-up in the voting ahead of Spain duo Yamal and Rodri, with Argentina skipper Messi fifth. <\/p>\n

Kane, 33, scored an incredible 73 goals for England and Bayern Munich combined during the voting period.<\/p>\n

\u201cOutstanding striker and goalscorer, and now creator for club and country. Worthy of the accolade,\u201d Foster wrote on X.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in a World Cup year, winning that trophy should play the major role alongside club performance and talent level. Lamine Yamal won his second major title at age 19, the World Cup, along with La Liga as player of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a superior record this year. And what Messi did at age 39 in the World Cup is unparalleled in the history of the game. Carried his country to the final.<\/p>\n

\u201cBroke numerous records along the way. There is scope in the voting to award the best player, clearly the most talented footballer while balancing national and club success. Both Yamal and Messi are superior footballers, and had better World Cups. Great player, unbelievable goalscorer. But wrong choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Messi, 39, has won a record eight Ballon d\u2019Or awards.<\/p>\n

Yamal was voted the best young talent for a third straight year but clearly wants the big prize.<\/p>\n

\u201cIT WILL COME, good things take time, I trust in the path I\u2019m building,\u201d the Barcelona winger wrote on Instagram.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo rush, just excitement and the calm assurance that one day my time will come.\u201d<\/p>\n

One journalist from each of the top 100 ranked nations votes for the men\u2019s award.<\/p>\n

Daniel Garb was Australia\u2019s representative.<\/p>\n

Garb had Kane top ahead of Mbapp\u00e9, Messi, Rodri and France\u2019s Michael Olise, with Yamal sixth.<\/p>\n

Football\u2019s\u00a0new home, Stan Sport<\/a>, is the only place to watch the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, FA Cup, WSL, J.League, NWSL and K League<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Socceroos captain Craig Foster is a huge admirer of England captain Harry Kane, both on and off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":943513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-943512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=943512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/943513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=943512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=943512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=943512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}