Ballon d’Or winners list: every winner since 1956, and Harry Kane’s 2026 win

Harry Kane won the 2026 Ballon d’Or, the 70th edition of the award, at the London Palladium on 26 October 2026. Kylian Mbappé was second and Lamine Yamal third. Alexia Putellas won the women’s Ballon d’Or for the third time.

Kane is the first Englishman to win it since Michael Owen in 2001 and the first Bayern Munich player since Karl-Heinz Rummenigge in 1981. His win is the 70th men’s award, and those 70 have gone to 48 different players.

Below is the complete list of every men’s winner since 1956 and every women’s winner since 2018, followed by the full 2026 results, how the vote works, which players, clubs and countries have won it most, and why the list does not work as a straight ranking of the best players in history.

Who won the Ballon d’Or 2026?

Kane, voted on his 2025-26 season with Bayern and England. He also took the Gerd Müller Trophy as the season’s top scorer on the same night. We covered the ceremony and the season behind it in our report on Kane’s win. This is the top ten as announced:

Rank	Player	Club at the ceremony	Country
1	Harry Kane	Bayern Munich	England
2	Kylian Mbappé	Real Madrid	France
3	Lamine Yamal	Barcelona	Spain
4	Rodri	Barcelona	Spain
5	Lionel Messi	Inter Miami	Argentina
6	Khvicha Kvaratskhelia	Paris Saint-Germain	Georgia
7	Ousmane Dembélé	Paris Saint-Germain	France
8	Erling Haaland	Manchester City	Norway
9	Michael Olise	Bayern Munich	France
10	Fabián Ruiz	Paris Saint-Germain	Spain

Three Paris Saint-Germain players made the top ten, and so did two from Bayern. Dembélé, the 2025 winner, finished seventh. Messi was fifth, playing in Major League Soccer, at 39.

The other awards on the night:

Award	Men	Women
Ballon d’Or	Harry Kane	Alexia Putellas
Kopa Trophy (best young player)	Lamine Yamal	Vicky López
Yashin Trophy (goalkeeper)	Unai Simón	Cata Coll
Gerd Müller Trophy (top scorer)	Harry Kane	Charlyn Corral
Coach of the year	Luis de la Fuente (Spain)	Pere Romeu (Barcelona)
Club of the year	Paris Saint-Germain	Barcelona
Sócrates Award	Bukayo Saka	One award, not split

Yamal’s Kopa was his third in a row, and nobody else has won the young player award more than once. Our Kopa Trophy winners list has every year.

The ceremony went to London to mark 70 years since Stanley Matthews, an Englishman, won the first award. Several reports on the night described it as the first Ballon d’Or held outside France. It was not: while the award was merged with FIFA’s from 2010 to 2015, the gala was held at the Kongresshaus in Zurich. London was the first Ballon d’Or gala held in the city.

Rodri, fourth, is listed at Barcelona because he joined them from Manchester City in August 2026; the vote was on his season at City, which ended with the Golden Ball at the World Cup.

Ballon d’Or winners list

Every men’s winner since 1956. There was no award in 2020, when France Football cancelled it during the Covid-19 pandemic. The points column is the winner’s total in that year’s vote.

Year	Winner	Team	Points
1956	Stanley Matthews	Blackpool	47
1957	Alfredo Di Stéfano	Real Madrid	72
1958	Raymond Kopa	Real Madrid	71
1959	Alfredo Di Stéfano	Real Madrid	80
1960	Luis Suárez	Barcelona	54
1961	Omar Sívori	Juventus	46
1962	Josef Masopust	Dukla Prague	65
1963	Lev Yashin	Dynamo Moscow	73
1964	Denis Law	Manchester United	61
1965	Eusébio	Benfica	67
1966	Bobby Charlton	Manchester United	81
1967	Flórián Albert	Ferencváros	68
1968	George Best	Manchester United	61
1969	Gianni Rivera	Milan	83
1970	Gerd Müller	Bayern Munich	77
1971	Johan Cruyff	Ajax	116
1972	Franz Beckenbauer	Bayern Munich	81
1973	Johan Cruyff	Barcelona	96
1974	Johan Cruyff	Barcelona	116
1975	Oleg Blokhin	Dynamo Kyiv	122
1976	Franz Beckenbauer	Bayern Munich	91
1977	Allan Simonsen	Borussia Mönchengladbach	74
1978	Kevin Keegan	Hamburger SV	87
1979	Kevin Keegan	Hamburger SV	118
1980	Karl-Heinz Rummenigge	Bayern Munich	122
1981	Karl-Heinz Rummenigge	Bayern Munich	106
1982	Paolo Rossi	Juventus	115
1983	Michel Platini	Juventus	110
1984	Michel Platini	Juventus	110
1985	Michel Platini	Juventus	127
1986	Igor Belanov	Dynamo Kyiv	84
1987	Ruud Gullit	Milan	106
1988	Marco van Basten	Milan	129
1989	Marco van Basten	Milan	129
1990	Lothar Matthäus	Inter Milan	137
1991	Jean-Pierre Papin	Marseille	141
1992	Marco van Basten	Milan	98
1993	Roberto Baggio	Juventus	142
1994	Hristo Stoichkov	Barcelona	210
1995	George Weah	Milan	144
1996	Matthias Sammer	Borussia Dortmund	144
1997	Ronaldo (Brazil)	Inter Milan	222
1998	Zinedine Zidane	Juventus	244
1999	Rivaldo	Barcelona	219
2000	Luís Figo	Real Madrid	197
2001	Michael Owen	Liverpool	176
2002	Ronaldo (Brazil)	Real Madrid	169
2003	Pavel Nedvěd	Juventus	190
2004	Andriy Shevchenko	Milan	175
2005	Ronaldinho	Barcelona	225
2006	Fabio Cannavaro	Real Madrid	173
2007	Kaká	Milan	444
2008	Cristiano Ronaldo	Manchester United	446
2009	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	473
2010	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	22.65%
2011	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	47.88%
2012	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	41.60%
2013	Cristiano Ronaldo	Real Madrid	27.99%
2014	Cristiano Ronaldo	Real Madrid	37.66%
2015	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	41.33%
2016	Cristiano Ronaldo	Real Madrid	745
2017	Cristiano Ronaldo	Real Madrid	946
2018	Luka Modrić	Real Madrid	753
2019	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	686
2021	Lionel Messi	Paris Saint-Germain	613
2022	Karim Benzema	Real Madrid	549
2023	Lionel Messi	Inter Miami	462
2024	Rodri	Manchester City	1,170
2025	Ousmane Dembélé	Paris Saint-Germain	1,380
2026	Harry Kane	Bayern Munich	–

Three things about the points column. From 2010 to 2015 the award was the FIFA Ballon d’Or, and the result was published as a share of the vote rather than a points total. The ballot itself has changed: in 2023 each voter named five players, worth six, four, three, two and one points, which is why Messi won with 462, while the current ballot ranks ten players on a scale that starts at 15. Rodri’s 1,170 in 2024 and Dembélé’s 1,380 in 2025 are on that bigger scale, so totals from different eras cannot be compared. And no points had been published for 2026 when this page was updated.

One row looks odd. Messi’s 2023 award is credited to Inter Miami, the club he had joined that July, although the season it rewarded was his last at Paris Saint-Germain. That is how the main record tables count it, and it is why PSG appear here with two winners (Messi in 2021 and Dembélé in 2025) rather than three.

Women’s Ballon d’Or winners list

Year	Winner	Team	Points
2018	Ada Hegerberg	Lyon	136
2019	Megan Rapinoe	Reign FC	230
2021	Alexia Putellas	Barcelona	186
2022	Alexia Putellas	Barcelona	178
2023	Aitana Bonmatí	Barcelona	–
2024	Aitana Bonmatí	Barcelona	–
2025	Aitana Bonmatí	Barcelona	–
2026	Alexia Putellas	Barcelona	–

Barcelona players have now won six women’s awards in a row: Putellas in 2021 and 2022, Aitana Bonmatí from 2023 to 2025, and Putellas again in 2026. Putellas is the second player to win it three times, after Bonmatí. The 2026 award rewarded her 2025-26 season at Barcelona; she has since joined London City Lionesses, who signed her in July 2026. Ewa Pajor was second this year and Khadija Shaw third.

Who has won the most Ballon d’Or awards?

Lionel Messi, with eight. Cristiano Ronaldo has five. Johan Cruyff, Michel Platini and Marco van Basten have three each, and Platini won his three in a row, from 1983 to 1985. These are all the players who have won it more than once:

Player	Wins	Years
Lionel Messi	8	2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019, 2021, 2023
Cristiano Ronaldo	5	2008, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017
Johan Cruyff	3	1971, 1973, 1974
Michel Platini	3	1983, 1984, 1985
Marco van Basten	3	1988, 1989, 1992
Alfredo Di Stéfano	2	1957, 1959
Franz Beckenbauer	2	1972, 1976
Kevin Keegan	2	1978, 1979
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge	2	1980, 1981
Ronaldo (Brazil)	2	1997, 2002

Those 10 players hold 32 of the 70 awards between them. The other 38 winners won it once each, which is where the total of 48 different winners comes from. Kane joins that second group, and so do Rodri and Dembélé.

Ballon d’Or winners by club and country

Real Madrid and Barcelona are level on 12 awards each. Madrid’s are spread across eight players; Barcelona’s six winners include Messi, who won six of his eight there. Kane’s award is Bayern’s sixth, after Gerd Müller in 1970, Franz Beckenbauer in 1972 and 1976, and Rummenigge in 1980 and 1981.

Club	Players	Awards
Real Madrid	8	12
Barcelona	6	12
Juventus	6	8
Milan	6	8
Bayern Munich	4	6
Manchester United	4	4
Dynamo Kyiv	2	2
Hamburger SV	1	2
Inter Milan	2	2
Paris Saint-Germain	2	2

Another 12 clubs have one award each, which takes the column to 70.

Country	Players	Awards
France	6	8
Argentina	1	8
Portugal	3	7
Germany (incl. West Germany)	5	7
Netherlands	3	7
England	5	6
Italy	5	5
Brazil	4	5
Spain	3	4
Soviet Union	3	3

Another 10 countries have one award each. England’s six now come from five players: Matthews in 1956, Bobby Charlton in 1966, Kevin Keegan in 1978 and 1979, Owen in 2001 and Kane. Germany’s seven include the West German winners before 1990, and the Soviet Union’s three were won by Lev Yashin, Oleg Blokhin and Igor Belanov. Argentina’s eight all belong to Messi.

How is the winner of the Ballon d’Or decided?

By a jury of journalists. The men’s award is voted on by one journalist from each of the top 100 nations in the FIFA world ranking; the women’s award by one from each of the top 50 in the women’s ranking. Each juror picks from a 30-player shortlist and ranks ten players, with places worth 15, 12, 10, 8, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point.

Three criteria are published, in this order:

Order	Criterion
1	Individual performance, and how decisive and impressive the player was
2	Team performance and the trophies won across the season
3	Class, and the player’s sense of fair play

What is missing matters as much. Until 2022 a fourth criterion covered the player’s career as a whole, and it was dropped on purpose after Messi’s contested seventh win over Robert Lewandowski in 2021. At the same time the award moved from a calendar year to a football season and the jury was cut to the top 100 countries. Since 2024 the ceremony has been run with UEFA, although France Football keeps the name.

The margins can be tiny. In 2024 Rodri beat Vinícius Júnior by 1,170 points to 1,129, and Real Madrid boycotted the ceremony.

The Ballon d’Or has not always been the same award

Before reading the list as a ranking of the best players in history, it helps to know that the pool of people allowed to win it has changed several times.

Years	Who could win
1956-1994	European players at European clubs only
1995-2006	Any player at a European club. George Weah won first in 1995; Ronaldo became the first South American winner in 1997
2007 onwards	Players anywhere in the world
2010-2015	Merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year award as the FIFA Ballon d’Or

So Diego Maradona and Pelé never won one, and not because the voters passed them over. Neither was eligible. Until 1995 the award was restricted by nationality as well as by club, so Maradona’s seven years at Napoli and two at Barcelona did not count. Pelé never played in Europe at all. For the award’s 60th anniversary in 2016, France Football re-ran the pre-1995 years as if every nationality had been eligible, and named Pelé the winner seven times and Maradona twice. The original winners were left unchanged, so none of those appear in the list above.

Who was the first Ballon d’Or winner?

Stanley Matthews of Blackpool, in 1956, aged 41. He is still the oldest winner. Three years earlier he had inspired Blackpool’s 4-3 win over Bolton Wanderers in the 1953 FA Cup final, the game still known as the Matthews final.

Who was the first women’s Ballon d’Or winner?

Ada Hegerberg of Norway and Lyon, in 2018, the first year the women’s award was given.

For the wider argument about where these awards sit in the all-time debate, we have pages on the GOAT of football, on who is the King of Football and on the one-off Super Ballon d’Or. If you follow the outright markets on next year’s award, our guide to football betting sites covers the operators that price them.

Featured photo: FRANCK FIFE / AFP

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