Kylian Mbapp\u00e9<\/a> 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\u2019s wake.<\/p>\nBut Kane is also a fully deserving winner of football\u2019s ultimate gong. The L\u2019\u00c9quipe-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\u2019s Bundesliga title, captained England to a World Cup semi-final, and above all shown himself to be a wonderfully humble superstar player.<\/p>\n
Quick GuideBallon d’Or: full list of winnersShow<\/p>\n
Ballon d\u2019Or <\/p>\n
Men Harry Kane (England and Bayern Munich) <\/p>\n
Women Alexia Putellas (Spain and London City Lionesses)<\/p>\n
Kopa Trophy (under-21)<\/p>\n
Men Lamine Yamal (Spain and Barcelona)<\/p>\n
Women Vicky L\u00f3pez\u00a0(Spain and Barcelona)<\/p>\n
Yashin Trophy (goalkeeper)<\/p>\n
Men Unai Sim\u00f3n\u00a0(Spain and Athletic Bilbao)<\/p>\n
Women Cata Coll\u00a0(Spain and Barcelona)<\/p>\n
Gerd M\u00fcller Trophy (striker)<\/p>\n
Men Harry Kane <\/p>\n
Women Charlyn Corral (Mexico and\u00a0Pachuca)<\/p>\n
Johan Cruyff Trophy (coach)<\/p>\n
Men Luis de la Fuente (Spain) <\/p>\n
Women Pere Romeu (Barcelona)<\/p>\n
Club of the Year <\/p>\n
Men Paris Saint-Germain Women Barcelona<\/p>\n
S\u00f3crates Award (humanitarian)<\/p>\n
Bukayo Saka (England and Arsenal)<\/p>\n
Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really tough this year, the incredible players I was up against,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am almost speechless. Being here in London has made it extra special,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The Wembley Stadium arch is lit up gold in honour of Harry Kane\u2019s Ballon d\u2019Or win. Photograph: Harry Murphy\/The FA\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
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 \u20ac100m fee up front for Kane three years ago, a transfer that broke the club\u2019s usual recruitment patterns and raised some concerns, given Kane was 30 at the time.<\/p>\n
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\u2019Or 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.<\/p>\n
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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.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, Kane equalled England\u2019s all-time caps record<\/a>, 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\u2019s captain and a final opportunity for a different kind of footballing immortality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harry Kane is the Ballon d\u2019Or winner for 2026, the first Englishman to win football\u2019s most prestigious individual…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":815040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-815039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-gb","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}