A year after finishing 13th, the England captain has won football's greatest individual prize, in the city where he was born.

Highlights

• Harry Kane has won the 2026 Ballon d'Or, beating Kylian Mbappe and Lamine Yamal at the London Palladium on Monday 26 October
• He is the first Englishman to win in 25 years, since Michael Owen in 2001, and the fifth in the award's history
• Kane scored 73 goals in 65 games for Bayern Munich and England, and a year ago he finished 13th in the vote
• Alexia Putellas won the women's award for a third time, and the Ballon d'Or's own website briefly named three different players as winner hours before the ceremony

Who won the 2026 Ballon d'Or?

Harry Kane. The Bayern Munich and England striker was named the men's winner at the 70th Ballon d'Or ceremony, the first held outside Paris. Kylian Mbappe of Real Madrid finished second and Lamine Yamal of Barcelona third. At 33, Kane won his first Ballon d'Or in the city where he was born, and where he began his career.

He arrived in London on Monday afternoon with his family and a large Bayern delegation. Earlier in the evening, he had already collected the Gerd Müller Trophy as the season's best striker.

How did Harry Kane go from 13th to Ballon d'Or winner?

It is a year-long turnaround. In 2025, Kane finished 13th in the vote, despite scoring 41 goals and winning the first major trophy of his career, the Bundesliga. Ousmane Dembele won that year. England manager Thomas Tuchel said he was "not the biggest fan of individual awards in a team sport", but Goal reported he shared the view that Kane deserved a higher place. A year earlier, in 2024, Kane had finished 10th.

This time the numbers were hard to ignore. Kane scored 73 goals in 65 games for club and country, 61 of them for Bayern, who won the Bundesliga and the German Cup. Heavy reports the total surpassed Robert Lewandowski's previous record of 69 goals, set in 2021. At the World Cup he added six goals and an assist as England reached the semi-finals, losing to Argentina before finishing third.

Who finished second and third?

Mbappe took second place after a season in which he scored 58 goals for club and country and topped the scoring charts in La Liga and the Champions League. He also became the World Cup's all-time leading scorer this summer, with 22 goals in total, 10 of them at this tournament. Yamal, 19, won La Liga with Barcelona and the World Cup with Spain, but had drifted in the betting through October. Rodri and Lionel Messi followed in fourth and fifth.

Which Englishmen have won the Ballon d'Or?

Kane is the fifth Englishman to win, and the ceremony came 70 years after Sir Stanley Matthews won the first Ballon d'Or in 1956.

Who won the 2026 Women's Ballon d'Or?

Alexia Putellas of Barcelona won her third Ballon d'Or Féminin, ending Aitana Bonmati's run of three in a row. Her club-mate Vicky Lopez won the women's Kopa Trophy for the best young player for the second year in a row, and Barcelona collected several more awards. Mexico's Charlyn Corral was named the women's striker of the year, the first Mexican player to receive an award at the ceremony.

Who won every award at the 2026 Ballon d'Or?

Yamal won the Kopa Trophy for the third year running, but said his Barcelona team-mate Pau Cubarsi deserved it more. Simon, the Spain goalkeeper, conceded only once at the World Cup and set a tournament record of 650 minutes without a goal against. De la Fuente said the coaching prize "is not an individual prize". Saka, of Arsenal and England, received the Sócrates Award for his work with the Big Shoe charity.

What happened at the 2026 Ballon d'Or ceremony?

It did not go smoothly. About two and a half hours before the ceremony was due to start, the Ballon d'Or's official website published three separate articles naming Kane, Mbappe and Yamal as the winner, before taking all three down. One praised Mbappe as "consistency personified at the very highest level", while another called Yamal "the new king of football". Organisers told the BBC that profiles prepared in advance had been "inadvertently published online".

The ceremony then started about 45 minutes late, with no official reason given, amid speculation that London traffic was to blame. Kane was finally handed the trophy around 10.51pm UK time.

What did Harry Kane say in his Ballon d'Or speech?

He thanked Bayern, England and his family, and spent a long moment on his first club. "You allowed me to live my dream," he said of Tottenham Hotspur, where he was from the age of 11. "I wouldn't be where I am today without Tottenham." He said the trophy belonged to his England team-mates too. "This one's for all of us," he said, and thanked Tuchel for pushing standards. Before the announcement, he admitted to being "a little nervous".

Did Eastern Eye's prediction come true?

Mostly. Our preview picked Kane to win, with Mbappe second and Yamal third, and all three finished in that order. The late gamble on Mbappe that we reported kept going, with his price cut to 5/4 on the day and bet365 even going evens. We were wrong on PSG: we expected their best-placed player to reach the top five, but none of their players did.

What does it mean for Kane and England?

Kane, who recently equalled Peter Shilton's England record, returns to Bayern as the best player in the world, and to England duty with Thomas Tuchel's squad for the November game against Croatia at Wembley. Mbappe, who is the subject of reports of interest from Liverpool, will wait for another chance. Yamal, still just 19, will be back in the conversation.