Harry Kane wins Ballon d'Or

Harry Kane, an English forward, won the Ballon d'Or on Monday, beating French star Kylian Mbappé by a small margin, as revealed in a detailed ranking published on Friday by France Football.

Vote results and points tally

Kane, 33, received 40 first-place votes from the 100 jurors and a total of 1055 points. Mbappé, who is the captain of the French national team, received 23 first-place votes and ended up with 1027 points.

Historic achievement for Kane

This makes Kane the first Englishman to win the Ballon d'Or since Michael Owen in 2001, marking a significant moment in English football history.

Recent Ballon d'Or winners

In 2025, Ousmane Dembélé of Paris Saint-Germain won the award with 1380 points, which was 321 points more than Lamine Yamal, who scored 1059 points. Yamal, a Spanish prodigy and world champion, came close but fell short by 174 points.

Ballon d'Or voting process

The Ballon d'Or is awarded based on a vote by journalists, with one journalist per country, representing the top 100 nations in the FIFA men's ranking and the top 50 in the women's ranking.

Selection criteria

The criteria for selecting the winner, in order of importance, are individual performances and decisive character, followed by collective results and achievements, and finally the player's behavior.