‎Who will win the 2026 Ballon D'or? 🏆⚽

[suzanne5223]

What are the criteria for winning the Ballon D'or?,  the criteria will determine who wins it and I don't see any on the players you have made mention of winning it outside harry kane and Lamine Yamal , we should first of all consider the trophies that this two individuals has won with their clubs because passing our judgement on who will win and as for myself I will want Yamal to win it considering his personal contributions and winning the world cup which is a prestigious trophy in the world of football so if any of the players ranked here should win it has to be him.

It's of no doubt that mbappe has being outstanding in his performance for Real Madrid and winning the highest scores scorer in the champions League 3 consecutive times but beyond that we are looking at the trophies that those players won with their respective clubs.

Everyday, it's getting hard for us to fully determine the winner of this year Ballon d'Or, like you said, the Mbappe doesn't really have a collective trophy and that's a big problem, which now falls on Yamal and Kane as Rodri's club performance was shit. For me I will go solely for Kane but that Yamal's world cup has made everything complicated. They should just remove that world cup presence and give it to Harry Kane, he deserves it but he just doesn't have the PR

They should just remove the world biggest football event out of what will be use to select the upcoming Ballon D'or winner? 
Doing so I like removing one of the important event in the history of football because the coming together of all tribe, different languages, and culture to play a single game shouldn't be taking for granted unless. However, Harry Kane is still most football fans' favourite, as the Ballon d'Or winner after him is Lamine Yamal, and then Mbappé, but all this does not justify who will be selected.

[Rhow]

But to me, I think Yamal should be considered above every other person because he has been exceptional for Spain and his club, and he has shown some brilliant moments individually in that Spain squad and Barca squad. However he didn't win the champions league, and so other persons that maybe qualified will lack all the qualifications too, but I think Yamal should be the man for the award this year.

I am a huge fan of Yamal myself. Yamal has made a huge impact on both club and national team at such a young age, which is quite a feat. Yamal's biggest strength is his impact on real match results and talent. However, an award like the Ballon d'Or requires a player's entire season to be compared. It is not just about who is more talented.

The advantage of Yamal is that he is not limited to statistics alone in his performance. He can change the style of play and break down the opponent's defensive structure. But he will have to work harder in the race for the Ballon d'Or.

[danadc]

Reaching 1000th goal isn't an achievement because the Messi that you are looking at has 1350 goal contribution already ahead of Ronaldo. Ronaldo couldn't even carry portugal so they can make it to the quarter final like others did in the world cup.

If it was only by votes, Messi will win it because he is good and better individually than the other nominees. Even if he doesn't win it, it is not going to be a problem because he already has like eight of that award sitting majestically in his award room. And he doesn't even need another one more to prove what a great player he is, because we all already knows how good he is.

Dismissing the 1000 goals simply because of fan bias completely ignores what makes Cristiano one of the greatest athletes of all time. Remember that before Cristiano, Portugal had only qualified for 3 World Cups. With Cristiano, they won their first major international trophies (Euro 2016 and the Nations League). You can't compare Cristiano with nominations for competitions or events, knowing how FIFA is now and its preferences. Cristiano is the all-time top scorer in international football and the most outstanding player in the history of the UCL.

[Grease5000]

For I think the winner will be lami Yamal, he had a great season with Barcelona  and Spain that saw him win the Laliga and the world which he contributed to, but I wouldn't play down the fact the he is been followed by two strong contenders which is Harry Kane and Klian Mbappe whose also have a successful season with the first winning the bundesliga  with bayern Munich which he came out as the highest scorer, with the later  winning several individuals award in different competitions despite not winning a single trophy with his club with also make him a leading  figure to  win the award.

[tiCeR]

...

In the era of Messi and Ronaldo, they are usually the two candidates that are worthy of the award even though we do have one or two players that do come close to the award, but the debate used to be between Messi and Ronaldo; that is the reason why there were not many complications when one was selected since trophies, goals, and other factors are being used.

This time we have some good players in this list and worth this same award. If we are to use what you highlighted here as what you feel makes Harry Kane worthy of this award, Lamine Yamal should also deserve the award because he even won the World Cup with Spain and performed really well in the tournament; Dembele also did well and won the Champions League and also played the World Cup semifinals, and he actually deserves the award too. 

Right and even though I am a huge fan of both of those players, I think there was a point when public pressure came into play for the committee that they could hardly resist. Their fanbases have a size that is out of this world. You would think that Mbappe has a huge fanbase with almost 140 million followers on Instagram, for example. But look at Messi and Ronaldo, it's ridiculous and not surprising why there was actual public pressure if it was voted against them.

Imagine you are a journalist of a newspaper and you vote against one of these players, I don't know, maybe the newspaper would have to fear dropping viewership. Ronaldo was moving Juventus' share price with some news about him.

There is no doubt though that those players deserved the award most of the time, but Harry Kane, apart from being a great footballer, has a great impact on young people I think. His image, his behavior, it is all more than solid.

[DYOR+BTC]

For I think the winner will be lami Yamal, he had a great season with Barcelona  and Spain that saw him win the Laliga and the world which he contributed to, but I wouldn't play down the fact the he is been followed by two strong contenders which is Harry Kane and Klian Mbappe whose also have a successful season with the first winning the bundesliga  with bayern Munich which he came out as the highest scorer, with the later  winning several individuals award in different competitions despite not winning a single trophy with his club with also make him a leading  figure to  win the award.

Collectively lami Yamal did an excellent job for both Barcelona his club side and Spain his own country  but that doesn't give him that complete right to become the winner of ballon D'or. His individual efforts that lead to  those victory was very minimal but just that he was very lucky to be path of both Barcelona and Spain squad that won those great trophies last  season. Although he has an exceptional and undeniable potential that could help place him at the level he prays for but do not possess the stability to control such prestigious award.
To me i think Mbappe's individual effort and team spirit has given him an edge over every other players and am sure it will go to him

[Hyphen(-)]

But to me, I think Yamal should be considered above every other person because he has been exceptional for Spain and his club, and he has shown some brilliant moments individually in that Spain squad and Barca squad. However he didn't win the champions league, and so other persons that maybe qualified will lack all the qualifications too, but I think Yamal should be the man for the award this year.

I am a huge fan of Yamal myself. Yamal has made a huge impact on both club and national team at such a young age, which is quite a feat. Yamal's biggest strength is his impact on real match results and talent. However, an award like the Ballon d'Or requires a player's entire season to be compared. It is not just about who is more talented.

The advantage of Yamal is that he is not limited to statistics alone in his performance. He can change the style of play and break down the opponent's defensive structure. But he will have to work harder in the race for the Ballon d'Or.

He is still a good candidate to win this award based on his performance last season and how their team performs both club and their National team Spain.

Barcelona won the Laliga last season, reached the Champions League quarterfinals, and Yamal was a good player, he was able to keep some interesting records last season from his performances, he can still win this award especially for the fact that he won the World Cup with Spain.

I also believe that he is a very young talented player that can win a lot of these awards in the future, he can miss it this time, but his performance so far this season is proving that he  is preparing for another season's award. The only player I am always not happy with the way they treat is Rafinha, he is not even nominated this time and he had some better performance than most of the players that are being nominated for the award, and I think Barcelona is the problem because even last season, they promoted Yamal instead of Rafinha and he also worth the award the last time.

Mbappe is a strong candidate to win this award as well, Dembele also deserves the award, the media is currently not even taking one side because every fan base is promoting their own player, the votes will determine who to win the award.

[Cryptoprincess101]

Honestly speaking, this time, nobody actually fits all the criteria needed to win the Ballon dor. We have great goal scorers like Kane, Mbape, Haaland , Yamal and the rest, but if we are talking about the Ballon dor, we must look at the team that won the champions league last season, which is PSG, I think one person among them should be picked for this award because they also won their league.

There are a lot of criteria used in finding who is worthy of the prestigious Ballon d'Or awards which includes team's performance and individual achievements and overall behaviour of a player. PSG won the Champions League but do they have any stand out player to win the Ballon d'Or? No, they don’t have because Ousmane Dembele won want it last season declined in performance this season. If we talk about team's achievement then Spain won the world Cup and Lamine Yamal too hasn't really been in his best especially in that world cup. But that notwithstanding, I still think that Lamine Yamal should be crowned the winner of that award.

I don't know the player in that PSG team that also won the World cup with Spain, but I think those are the criteria they use to look at before giving the award, except things has changed. And I also think that this year's Ballon dor is going to be the most talked about because so many persons will disagree with the person they give, and that will create a lot of tension.

It's Fabián Ruiz who is the only PSG player that won the World Cup for Spain but he doesn't come close to having any chances of winning the ballon d'Or. The award always causes pandemonium every year so we should get prepared because it might not even be one of the players we are looking at, just as it happened when Rodri was given the award instead of Brazilian and Real Madrid striker Vinicius Jr.

[sergiorus]

There are a lot of criteria used in finding who is worthy of the prestigious Ballon d'Or awards which includes team's performance and individual achievements and overall behaviour of a player.

Officially there aren't. It all comes down to how journalists + captains and managers of national teams vote.

Some of them are pretty biased. The journalists can also be corrupted.

What we can clearly observe is the tendencies - i.e. World Cup achievements are highly valued because they happen only once in 4 years. Or that certain players are ridiculously favoured no matter how they performed relatively to others.

[Justbillywitt]

Mbappe has been granting several interviews lately about the Ballon d’Or, according to him, he said nobody deserves the award more than him this time. He went on to say that Osmane Dembele wasn’t a star player when they were together at PSG, that it was after he left that him became a star player. This is a player that won everything with Barcelona before joining PSG. I believe Mbappe is pained that Dembele won the world best before him. Funny enough he won’t win it again this year. With the way he’s going about things, his frustration of going without trophies for 2 seasons at Madrid is beginning to show. His mission was to win everything at Madrid and win the world best. But he didn’t know nature had other plans.

[GbitG]

Mbappe has been granting several interviews lately about the Ballon d’Or, according to him, he said nobody deserves the award more than him this time. He went on to say that Osmane Dembele wasn’t a star player when they were together at PSG, that it was after he left that him became a star player. This is a player that won everything with Barcelona before joining PSG. I believe Mbappe is pained that Dembele won the world best before him. Funny enough he won’t win it again this year. With the way he’s going about things, his frustration of going without trophies for 2 seasons at Madrid is beginning to show. His mission was to win everything at Madrid and win the world best. But he didn’t know nature had other plans.

Lol 
I don't know why he is just acting like that. If you have quality then prove it like why are just barking on others. If a players won a prestigious trophy then probably you should need to acknowledge it. Humbleness always won like Kilyan Mbappe have ego and even he call himself the better player than Cristiano although initially his ideal was Cristiano Ronaldo it now he call himself the better player than him.....The fact is that he can't even reach to the level of these players.

However, if someone is telling me that Osman Dembele is much better than Kilyan Mbappe then probably I will acknowledge it because Osman Dembele has won twice UEFA champions league title as well won 2 World Cup ans even won Balloon d'Or too. Despite Kilyan Mbappe has nothing except World Cup and Silver boosts.

[igebotz]

Normally in a World Cup season it is won by a player who has a particularly good World Cup and a good domestic season before it. For that reason is has to be Yamal, he won La Liga and the World Cup. Some people will make cases for Kane or Mbappe but for me, I would vote Yamal.

Yes that's true, I don't like Yamal that much but fact is stubborn - he didn't have a good individual WC performance like others but nobody care about that now; the only thing they see is a WC winner and Laliga winner. Top ranking now.

Mbappe for me is the least contestant on the list; all he did last season was winning TOP scorer awards but without trophies the best he can get is the Gedd Muller trophy ( award for the best goal scorers) cause that's all he was...

Kane on the other hand had the best year of his career and was the best in Europe - won 3 trophies, a WC bronze medalist and also dropped one of the best WC performance - deserved it but without the WC trophy it's difficult.

Wish it become one of those years where they give based on individual performance and maybe give it to Kane and let others cry on the Internet. I would vote for Kane

[Hypnotizer]

Mbappe has been granting several interviews lately about the Ballon d’Or, according to him, he said nobody deserves the award more than him this time. He went on to say that Osmane Dembele wasn’t a star player when they were together at PSG, that it was after he left that him became a star player. This is a player that won everything with Barcelona before joining PSG.
~

Several interviews? I believe that’s just sarcasm because they were just quotes from France Football and L’Equipe’s publications.

Your statements are kinda misleading though because AFAIK Mbappe hasn’t  talked down Dembele with that statement. Everyone knows that Dembele is a good and talented player, and dembele didn’t have an impressive starting season at PSG on his arrival but his next season which happens to be when Mbappe left,  he became the star player for the team because he fits Enrique style better and that doesn’t mean Mbappe was better.

If we’re talking about the most deserving player for the Ballon D’or award then I’d definitely go with Kane even though he doesn’t have the World Cup but right now I think Yamal has high chances of winning it.. and that will be an impressive achievement for the teenager because he’ll become the youngest winner of the award.

[Betwrong]

~ If we’re talking about the most deserving player for the Ballon D’or award then I’d definitely go with Kane even though he doesn’t have the World Cup but right now I think Yamal has high chances of winning it.. and that will be an impressive achievement for the teenager because he’ll become the youngest winner of the award.

Well, 34.9% from the voters here think the same, so, maybe you guys are right. But if I was giving Ballon D'or this year, I would give it to Kylian Mbappe, like 11.6% of the voters. Apart from scoring 42 goals this season he was like the spirit of the team, in my opinion. It's because of him Real Madrid scored many of its wins, even when Kylian didn't score a goal himself. I hope those those who decide see his performance as I do.

[BitBakerr1]

Mbappe has been granting several interviews lately about the Ballon d’Or, according to him, he said nobody deserves the award more than him this time. He went on to say that Osmane Dembele wasn’t a star player when they were together at PSG, that it was after he left that him became a star player. This is a player that won everything with Barcelona before joining PSG. I believe Mbappe is pained that Dembele won the world best before him. Funny enough he won’t win it again this year. With the way he’s going about things, his frustration of going without trophies for 2 seasons at Madrid is beginning to show. His mission was to win everything at Madrid and win the world best. But he didn’t know nature had other plans.

His plan was actually to go to Real Madrid and win the Champions League and also win the ballon d’Or.
This was the major reason why he decided to leave PSG, even after all the promises by PSG for increasing his wages.
He has been in PSG for a very long time and they could not win the Champions League and because Real Madrid is a club that wins the champions league regularly. He believed that if he goes to Real Madrid, he’s going to win the champions league and the ballon d’Or.

If we actually look at it in terms of personal achievement, we are going to agree that he deserves to win the ballon d’Or this year because for personal achievement, he has done very well.

[Ryu_Ar1]

Normally in a World Cup season it is won by a player who has a particularly good World Cup and a good domestic season before it. For that reason is has to be Yamal, he won La Liga and the World Cup. Some people will make cases for Kane or Mbappe but for me, I would vote Yamal.

Individually for me Yamal is a bad person (off the pitch) but when it comes to performance he still deserves the ballon d'or this season. The La Liga trophy and the World Cup are indisputable although statistically in the World Cup I'm not too impressed but when there is a hand from the start to the championship it's hard to rule out.

Kane is also actually very worthy despite not being in the final for the World Cup but individual records as a targetman of the England and Bayern national teams especially with Bayern's record last season in terms of productivity and almost 40 percent of it is Kane who contributes he is a strong candidate.

For Mbappe he is not a bad player but when compared to Yamal and Kane he is the last candidate on this list.

[kizilhare]

What are the criteria for winning the Ballon D'or?,  the criteria will determine who wins it and I don't see any on the players you have made mention of winning it outside harry kane and Lamine Yamal , we should first of all consider the trophies that this two individuals has won with their clubs because passing our judgement on who will win and as for myself I will want Yamal to win it considering his personal contributions and winning the world cup which is a prestigious trophy in the world of football so if any of the players ranked here should win it has to be him.

It's of no doubt that mbappe has being outstanding in his performance for Real Madrid and winning the highest scores scorer in the champions League 3 consecutive times but beyond that we are looking at the trophies that those players won with their respective clubs.

Everyday, it's getting hard for us to fully determine the winner of this year Ballon d'Or, like you said, the Mbappe doesn't really have a collective trophy and that's a big problem, which now falls on Yamal and Kane as Rodri's club performance was shit. For me I will go solely for Kane but that Yamal's world cup has made everything complicated. They should just remove that world cup presence and give it to Harry Kane, he deserves it but he just doesn't have the PR

They should just remove the world biggest football event out of what will be use to select the upcoming Ballon D'or winner? 
Doing so I like removing one of the important event in the history of football because the coming together of all tribe, different languages, and culture to play a single game shouldn't be taking for granted unless. However, Harry Kane is still most football fans' favourite, as the Ballon d'Or winner after him is Lamine Yamal, and then Mbappé, but all this does not justify who will be selected.

World Cup performance should not be the deciding factor for this year's Ballon d'Or. It is a tournament that takes place only once every four years; Yamal shouldn't win the award simply because Spain lifted the trophy, especially given that he didn't have a particularly successful season last year. Similarly, Mbappé shouldn't win it just for being the World Cup's top scorer when he didn't have a successful season with Real Madrid.
Kane scored 65 goals across all competitions last season and also delivered a remarkable performance at the World Cup.
He doesn't get much attention, but he is the one who truly deserves the award.
I hope there are no surprise results.

[KTChampions]

Mbappe has been granting several interviews lately about the Ballon d’Or, according to him, he said nobody deserves the award more than him this time. He went on to say that Osmane Dembele wasn’t a star player when they were together at PSG, that it was after he left that him became a star player. This is a player that won everything with Barcelona before joining PSG. I believe Mbappe is pained that Dembele won the world best before him. Funny enough he won’t win it again this year. With the way he’s going about things, his frustration of going without trophies for 2 seasons at Madrid is beginning to show. His mission was to win everything at Madrid and win the world best. But he didn’t know nature had other plans.

I think you listened to Mbappé’s interview with a bias. He speaks very highly of Dembélé’s achievements and points out a simple fact: Dembélé was always considered talented, whereas Mbappé was viewed as the "chosen one." And it is hard to argue with that, since Mbappé became a superstar at a very early age. Dembélé’s rise was much slower, partly due to injuries,  something Mbappé himself mentioned. Honestly, I don’t quite understand how you could think Mbappé is somehow jealous of Dembélé.

[suzanne5223]

What are the criteria for winning the Ballon D'or?,  the criteria will determine who wins it and I don't see any on the players you have made mention of winning it outside harry kane and Lamine Yamal , we should first of all consider the trophies that this two individuals has won with their clubs because passing our judgement on who will win and as for myself I will want Yamal to win it considering his personal contributions and winning the world cup which is a prestigious trophy in the world of football so if any of the players ranked here should win it has to be him.

It's of no doubt that mbappe has being outstanding in his performance for Real Madrid and winning the highest scores scorer in the champions League 3 consecutive times but beyond that we are looking at the trophies that those players won with their respective clubs.

Everyday, it's getting hard for us to fully determine the winner of this year Ballon d'Or, like you said, the Mbappe doesn't really have a collective trophy and that's a big problem, which now falls on Yamal and Kane as Rodri's club performance was shit. For me I will go solely for Kane but that Yamal's world cup has made everything complicated. They should just remove that world cup presence and give it to Harry Kane, he deserves it but he just doesn't have the PR

They should just remove the world biggest football event out of what will be use to select the upcoming Ballon D'or winner? 
Doing so I like removing one of the important event in the history of football because the coming together of all tribe, different languages, and culture to play a single game shouldn't be taking for granted unless. However, Harry Kane is still most football fans' favourite, as the Ballon d'Or winner after him is Lamine Yamal, and then Mbappé, but all this does not justify who will be selected.

World Cup performance should not be the deciding factor for this year's Ballon d'Or. It is a tournament that takes place only once every four years; Yamal shouldn't win the award simply because Spain lifted the trophy, especially given that he didn't have a particularly successful season last year. Similarly, Mbappé shouldn't win it just for being the World Cup's top scorer when he didn't have a successful season with Real Madrid.
Kane scored 65 goals across all competitions last season and also delivered a remarkable performance at the World Cup.
He doesn't get much attention, but he is the one who truly deserves the award.
I hope there are no surprise results.

Really? World Cup performance shouldn't be used.
Go and do your research by ranking the list of the top 5 football tournaments used to select the Ballon d'Or winner in the exact order are;
FIFA World Cup
UEFA Champions League
UEFA European Championship
Copa América
FIFA Club World Cup
Therefore, you saying the World Cup performance shouldn't be used to select the winner is totally impossible, but Kane remains the people's favourite as the rightful person to win the Ballon d'Or, so i hope luck is on his side.

[Floczy]

Honestly, I don’t quite understand how you could think Mbappé is somehow jealous of Dembélé.

There will always be some levels of jealousy..

Kylian Mbappé just like every other star player will want to make the achievement of winning the balloon d'Or. And from the few years of the rise of dembélé and Mbappé, if you closely observe there had always been cases of comparison between these 2 players, and he is aware of that. So at the end dembélé having something that mbappé couldn't reach will definitely lead to levels of jealousy and on the good side Better performance from mbappé.

Generally between these two, there is a lot of imbalance on both players on this 2026 balloon d'Or race, kylian Mbappé actually put up a very good performance overall (club and country) but the down side is that he went trophyless, fans globally will react to that, at the same time trophies are major achievements for the decision making when it comes to deciding who the balloon d'Or winner should be.

On the other hand Dembélé didn't play as much games as others, that also should be put into consideration as well..
Overall this year will definitely be a tough one on deciding the balloon d'Or winner, but one thing I know for sure is that who ever wins it... Fans will definitely be offended. Because for there is no perfect one if your considering the other contenders.