Kane beat Mbappé by 28 points to win 2026 Ballon d'Or, organisers reveal

Harry Kane won the 2026 men's Ballon d'Or by just 28 points over Kylian Mbappé, the award's organisers, France Football, revealed on Friday when they published the full vote breakdown.

Kane, the England captain who plays for Bayern Munich, collected 1,055 points. Mbappé, the France captain who plays for Real Madrid, finished on 1,027.

The gap is the smallest under the award's current voting system, according to France Football. The previous closest was in 2024, when Rodri beat Vinícius Júnior by 41 points.

Kane was named winner at a ceremony in London on Monday. He is the first Englishman to take the men's prize since Michael Owen in 2001.

How the votes fell

Kane was placed first on 40 of the 100 ballots. Mbappé topped 23. Barcelona's Lamine Yamal, who won the World Cup with Spain in the summer, came third on 881 points, 174 behind Kane.

Before Friday, the organisers had only said the margin was smaller than the 41-point gap of 2024. Vincent Garcia, editor-in-chief of France Football, had described the result as decided by "a hair's breadth".

The award is voted on by one journalist from each of the top 100 countries in the men's FIFA rankings. Each voter picks 10 players and awards points on a scale from 15 down to one, weighing individual performances, team titles, and fair play.

Kane's win followed a prolific 2025/26 season in which he scored 73 goals for club and country, according to UEFA. Last year's winner, Ousmane Dembélé, took the prize by a far wider margin, finishing 321 points clear of Yamal.

What happens next

The full breakdown settles the question of how close the race was, but it does not change the result. Kane keeps the trophy, and attention now turns to whether he and Mbappé can repeat the duel in the 2027 vote.