JUAN CASTRO
Updated
Harry Kane. That is the name of the day and of the year. The Englishman is the new Ballon d'Or (succeeding Ousmane Dembélé), as has just been revealed at the ceremony held at London's Palladium Theatre. The Englishman, the big favorite along with Lamine Yamal, beat the Barcelona player and once again leaves Spain without a Ballon d'Or in the year it won the World Cup, as already happened in 2010. On that occasion Messi came out ahead of Iniesta and Xavi Hernández.
The 100 final voters for the award (100 journalists appointed by "France Football" from the top 100 countries in the FIFA rankings) considered HK to be the best of the season in the period under review (August 1, 2025–July 31, 2026). They prioritized voting criterion number one (individual performance) over criterion 2, which is the team’s collective merits, since in this second one Lamine was ahead of HK for having won the World Cup.
Harry is crowned in London, the city where he was born 33 years ago, and received his first Ballon d'Or (he also already has two Golden Boots) accompanied, in the stands, by his wife, Katie Goodland, whom he has known since childhood, his parents and his personal sports doctor, Alejandro Elorriaga from Madrid.
The Englishman has a goal-filled career, although not so many titles, since he has only started winning team honors since his move to Bayern three and a half years ago. But his record in terms of goals last season is unquestionable. That is what the Jury has rewarded ahead of Lamine's World Cup.
Kane's merits:
Collectively, the Londoner won the German treble (the 26 Super Cup, the 25-26 Cup and the 25-26 Bundesliga) and third place at the World Cup with England (six goals for Harry in seven matches). Individually, HK has these achievements: European Golden Boot, Bundesliga top scorer (36 goals) for the third year in a row, and member of the UEFA Champions League Team of the Year. Other goalscoring records are these:
- HK scored 73 goals (Bayern and England) in 65 matches between August 2025 and July 2026. Only Lionel Messi (82 in 69 in 11/12) surpasses him.
- HK scored 61 goals (and seven assists) with Bayern in 25-26 across all competitions. The last player to score that many goals in a season was Cristiano Ronaldo for Real Madrid in 14/15.
- HK was the second top scorer in the Champions League with 13 goals (Mbappé scored 15) and - HK scored in every knockout round of the Champions League and the German Cup.
- HK is fifth among the players with the most goals in World Cup history, with 14 goals.