France Football revealed the full voting breakdown for the 2026 men's Ballon d'Or on Friday, showing that Harry Kane beat Kylian Mbappé by just 28 points. Kane was ranked first by 40 journalists, while Mbappé received 23 first-place votes. Lamine Yamal completed the podium with 881 points and 13 first-place votes. Kane's victory made him the first English winner of the award since Michael Owen in 2001, as reported earlier this week.
Who left Kane and Mbappé out?
Kane was omitted from the top 10 entirely by only two countries, Mexico and Ivory Coast. Mbappé fared slightly worse, missing the top 10 on three ballots, from Greece, Scotland and Ukraine. Yamal was left off the top 10 by four countries: Belarus, Cameroon, Croatia and Greece.
Rodri and Fabián Ruiz
Rodri finished fourth overall and was the second-highest ranked Spaniard. He received first-place votes from 10 countries: Nigeria, the United States, Guatemala, South Korea, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Thailand, Vietnam, Croatia and Iceland. Fabián Ruiz, who placed 10th, was ranked No. 1 by voters from Gabon, Peru, Syria and Ukraine.
Messi's scattered support
Lionel Messi finished fifth overall. He received the maximum score, meaning a first-place ranking, from Brazil and five other countries: Argentina, Panama, Belarus, the United Arab Emirates and China. China, currently at the center of a controversy involving Mbappé over comments he made about Mao Zedong, also ranked Mbappé fifth on its own ballot. Paraguay, with whom Messi had a minor dispute during the World Cup, placed him third, while nine of the 20 African countries represented in the vote selected him as the best player in the world.
No first-place votes for the defending champion
Ousmane Dembélé, who won the 2025 Ballon d'Or, was not chosen as the world's top player by any country this time and finished seventh overall. He did receive second-place votes from seven nations: Burkina Faso, China, France, Georgia, Haiti, North Macedonia and Nigeria. Erling Haaland was also never ranked first, picking up second-place votes only from Croatia, Northern Ireland and Norway. The only journalist to place Michael Olise first came from Curaçao.
Other notable ballots
The journalist representing Morocco chose compatriot Achraf Hakimi as the world's best player, with Yamal ranked third on that ballot. Pau Cubarsí, described as the highest-ranked defender among the 30 nominees, finished second on the ballots of voters from Jamaica and Switzerland. Ferran Torres was placed fourth by Algeria and Croatia, while Greece ranked Marc Cucurella fourth.
Decided by a margin of 28 points, the 2026 men's Ballon d'Or was the fourth-closest vote in the award's history. The gap was smaller than in 2024, when Rodri defeated Vinícius Júnior by 71 points.
