France Football editor-in-chief Vincent Garcia has revealed that Harry Kane beat Kylian Mbappé to the Ballon d’Or by the narrowest of margins.

Bayern Munich star Harry Kane was named the 2026 Ballon d’Or winner on Monday night, finishing ahead of Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappé.

Speaking to L’Équipe afterwards, France Football editor-in-chief Vincent Garcia, who oversees the organisation of the Ballon d’Or, revealed just how close the race between the two had been.

“This year, there were several serious contenders. The two closest were the top two, Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappé, and the race between them was decided by very little," Garcia told L'Equipe (via iMiaSanMia).

"The points gap between Kane and Mbappé was smaller than the gap between Rodri and Vinícius Júnior in 2024, which was 41 points - and that was already a very narrow margin at the time. It was incredibly close between Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappé in the battle for first place this year.

“I was watching the results in real time during the month of the vote. Kylian led the race for a long time, but Harry Kane came back into contention, and in the end, it was decided by a very, very small number of points," he revealed.