Harry Kane has been named the winner of the 2026 Ballon d’Or, becoming the first Englishman to claim the award in 25 years.
The Bayern Munich striker and England captain collected the trophy at a ceremony at the London Palladium on Monday evening. The event marked the first time the Ballon d’Or has been staged outside France and coincided with the 70th edition of the award.
Kane’s triumph follows an outstanding season in which he scored 73 goals in 65 appearances for club and country. He helped Bayern Munich win the Bundesliga and the German Cup, while also playing for England at the World Cup, where the national team finished third.
Aged 33, Kane becomes only the fifth English recipient of the honour, following Sir Stanley Matthews, Sir Bobby Charlton, Kevin Keegan and Michael Owen, who won in 2001. He is also the first Bayern Munich player to win the award since Karl Heinz Rummenigge in the early 1980s. The crowd at the Palladium rose to its feet and chanted his name as the result was announced.
Earlier in the evening Kane had already received the Gerd Müller Trophy for the world’s best striker. In his acceptance speech for that award he described the campaign as the best of his career without a doubt and emphasised that scoring so many goals had been a total team effort, thanking those around him who kept him grounded, including his wife Kate.
The ceremony also saw Spain’s Alexia Putellas win the women’s Ballon d’Or for a third time. Kane’s victory ends a long wait for English football at the highest individual level and crowns a period of prolific form since his move to Germany in 2023.
By John James
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