Ballon d'Or 2026: Harry Kane wins, first England winner since Michael Owen; Putellas takes third

Harry Kane has won the Ballon d'Or 2026, the first England player to take football's best-known individual prize since Michael Owen in 2001. The Bayern Munich and England striker beat Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappe at the 70th ceremony, held at the London Palladium on Monday night, around 1am on Tuesday in Pakistan. Alexia Putellas of Spain won the Ballon d'Or Feminin for a third time, equalling the women's record, BBC Sport reported.

The full list of winners was carried by NBC Sports and ESPN.

Ballon d'Or 2026 winners: the full list

Where the others finished

Yamal and Mbappe filled the next two places in the men's vote, followed by Rodri and Lionel Messi. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Ousmane Dembele, Erling Haaland, Michael Olise and Fabian Ruiz completed the top 10. Jude Bellingham was 11th and Declan Rice 15th.

In the women's vote Putellas finished ahead of Poland's Ewa Pajor and Jamaica's Khadija "Bunny" Shaw of Manchester City.

Why Kane's win matters

Kane, 33, is the fourth-oldest first-time winner of the men's award. He has spent most of his career chasing a first major trophy and finally got one with Bayern, and his scoring for club and country carried him past a younger field. In his speech he thanked Bayern, England, Tottenham Hotspur, where he came through, and his family.

England's previous winners were Stanley Matthews (1956, the first ever Ballon d'Or), Bobby Charlton (1966), Kevin Keegan (1978 and 1979) and Owen (2001). The ceremony moved from Paris to London this year to mark 70 years since Matthews won the first one.

Putellas, who won in 2021 and 2022, now plays for London City Lionesses after leaving Barcelona, though Barcelona still dominated the women's awards with three of the individual prizes and club of the year.

For fans in Pakistan

The ceremony started at 1am PKT on Tuesday. Our preview with the timings has the full nominee list. Want to check how old a player was when they won? Our age calculator works it out to the day.