The 70th annual ceremony of the Ballon d'Or will take place at the London Palladium on Monday, October 26, 2026. 

Bayern Munich's Harry Kane, Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe and Barcelona's Lamine Yamal are the front runners for the men's award.

Meanwhile, former Barcelona star Alexia Putellas is the clear favourite to win the women's award for the third time in her career.

With France Football set to host their annual ceremony, Sports Mole covers all you need to know about the voting process for the Ballon d'Or award, including the key criteria, points system and what happens in a potential tie-break scenario.

Who decides the men's Ballon d'Or winners?

A team of journalists from France Football, who ran the Ballon d'Or ceremony, L'Equipe and one juror from the previous edition help decide the final shortlist of 30 players.

UEFA ambassadors Luis Figo and Fabio Capello also have an input for the men's shortlist, while Nadine Kessler has a say in the shortlist for the women's trophy. 

A jury of 100 football journalists then votes to decide the winner. The panel is made up of one representative from the top 100 nations as per the FIFA World Rankings when the shortlist was published on Scriteria, points system and tie-break scenario.

In slight contrast to the men's prize, only 50 journalists from the top-ranked nations in the world take part in the voting for the women's award. 

What are the three main criteria for the Ballon d'Or?

As per the Ballon d'Or regulations, jurors are advised to base their votes on three criteria, which is listed in order of importance below:

1. Individual performances, decisive and impressive character
2. Collective performances and titles won
3. Class and fair play

Voters consider performances for club and country between August 3, 2025 and July 19, 2026 as part of their decision-making process.

The deadline for Ballon d'Or voting closed on Monday, September 28. 

How does the Ballon d'Or points system work?

The juror rank their top 10 players in descending order from the appropriate shortlist. The top 10 players are awarded 15, 12, 10, 8, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point.

The points are then tallied up and the player with the highest number of points claims the Ballon d'Or. 

What happens in a tie-break scenario?

There is a plan in place for the unlikely scenario of a tie between two or more players. The number of first-place votes a player receives will act as the first tie-breaker.

If the tie continues, it will go to the number of second-place votes, then third-place votes and so on until the players are separated. 

The rules also state that the editor-in-chief of Franco Football settles any disputes from the vote.