Burna Boy hands Saka Socrates Award at Ballon d'Or in London
- Burna Boy presented the 2026 Socrates Award to Arsenal's Bukayo Saka at the Ballon d'Or ceremony in London.
- Saka won for charity work with BigShoe, which funded surgeries for children in Nigeria and other African countries.
- Burna Boy used the stage to talk up his football academy in Nigeria.
Nigerian singer Burna Boy walked on stage at the Ballon d'Or ceremony in London on Monday night to hand the 2026 Socrates Award to Arsenal and England winger Bukayo Saka.
The ceremony held at the Palladium Theatre. The Socrates Award, set up in 2022 by France Football with Peace and Sport, goes to footballers who use their profile for humanitarian work. It carries the name of Sócrates, the late Brazilian midfielder.
Saka, who is of Nigerian heritage, was picked for his work with BigShoe, a charity that pays for medical treatment for children. According to TheCable, the partnership funded operations for 120 children in Kano in 2022. The following year, the charity backed surgery for another 100 children in Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania.
On the podium, Saka read out a letter from someone the charity had helped, a child who had come through eye surgery. He also spoke about a 12-year-old boy in a Rwandan village who got support from BigShoe to help him cope with sight loss.
“It's an honour to receive this award, on behalf of all the children we have been able to help, thank you,” Saka said, according to Leadership.
He said his family works closely with the charity. “We try to do our best to help children who don't have the same opportunities or capabilities we have,” he said, per TheCable.
Burna Boy's academy and what comes next
Before handing over the trophy, Burna Boy spoke about the football academy he set up in Nigeria some years ago to back the game at home. He said he hopes the project will one day produce a player who returns to the Ballon d'Or as a winner.
Past winners of the Socrates Award include Senegal's Sadio Mané, Brazil's Vinícius Júnior and Spain's Jenni Hermoso. Last year it went to the Xana Foundation, set up by Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique in memory of his daughter.
For Nigerian readers, the night put two familiar names in the same frame: a Grammy-winning artiste from the country and a footballer whose family roots are here, with charity money that has already reached children in Kano. The surgeries Saka helped pay for are the kind of support many families cannot afford on their own.
What happens next rests with BigShoe and the families it works with, as the charity continues to fund treatment for children in Nigeria and across Africa.
