The 2026 Ballon d'Or ceremony will be held at the London Palladium in Soho on Monday, October 26, beginning at 8pm, according to Sky Sports. It is the first time the ceremony has been staged in London, and the event marks the 70th anniversary of the award.
Sky Sports reports that the London location was chosen as a tribute to Stanley Matthews, the England winger who won the inaugural Ballon d'Or in 1956.
Bayern Munich and England striker Harry Kane is now the bookmakers' favourite for the men's prize, having overtaken Barcelona and Spain winger Lamine Yamal, who had previously been odds-on. Among the women, London City Lionesses and Spain midfielder Alexia Putellas leads the market, with her former Barcelona teammates Ewa Pajor and Aitana Bonmati, a previous winner, closest behind her.
Why it matters
The 2026 edition carries weight beyond the trophy itself. Kane is attempting to become the first Englishman to win the Ballon d'Or since Michael Owen in 2001, and would be only the fifth player from England to take the honour. The award's return to London for its 70th year also ties the modern ceremony to its origins, when two France Football journalists created a prize intended to crown the best men's player in Europe.
The closeness of the men's race adds further interest. Kane and Yamal have swapped places at the top of the bookmakers' lists, which Sky Sports says points to a very tight vote.
How the award is decided and who votes
France Football, the French magazine that founded the prize in 1956, still organises the award and runs the voting, while the ceremony is co-organised with UEFA, European football's governing body. The prize began as a European-only honour for men, was opened to non-Europeans playing on the continent in 1995, and became a global award in 2007. A women's Ballon d'Or was added in 2018, with Ada Hegerberg, then at Lyon, the first recipient.
Players are assessed on their performances across the whole of last season, a window running from August 3, 2025 to July 19, 2026. According to the awards' website, as cited by Sky Sports, judging rests on three criteria listed in descending order of importance.
The winners are chosen by what the awards describe as an international jury of specialist journalists. For the men's trophy, one journalist represents each of the top 100 nations in the FIFA rankings; for the women's award, one journalist represents each of the top 50. The rankings used are those in place on September 8, 2026.
Each juror ranks 10 players from a 30-name shortlist in order of preference. Those picks earn 15, 12, 10, 8, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 points respectively, and the player with the most points wins. If two players finish level, the number of first-place votes separates them, with second-place and lower placings used in turn if the tie remains.
The shortlist itself is compiled by France Football's editorial staff, members of L'Equipe's editorial team, one juror from the previous edition, and UEFA ambassadors — Luis Figo and Fabio Capello for the men's award and Nadine Kessler for the women's.
Recent winners and the record books
Ousmane Dembele, the Paris Saint-Germain and France forward, is the reigning men's winner. The prize has gone to a different player in each of the last four years, with Rodri, Lionel Messi and Karim Benzema also collecting it in that stretch.
Before that run, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo dominated the award for 13 years, the only interruption coming in 2018 when Luka Modric won. Between 2008 and 2017 the pair were the sole winners. Messi holds the record with eight Ballon d'Or titles, with Ronaldo next on five.
Michel Platini, the France legend who won in 1983, 1984 and 1985, is one of three players with three victories, alongside the Dutch pair Johan Cruyff and Marco van Basten. Kevin Keegan, the England forward who died this year at 75, won twice and is one of five players on two titles, a group that also includes Brazil's Ronaldo, Spain's Alfredo Di Stefano and the German duo Franz Beckenbauer and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.
England has produced four winners: Matthews in 1956, Sir Bobby Charlton in 1966, Keegan in 1978 and 1979, and Owen in 2001. Including Northern Ireland's George Best (1968) and Scotland's Denis Law (1964), the United Kingdom accounts for six winners in total.
Under the current voting system, introduced in 2016, the narrowest runner-up finish came in 2019, when Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk lost to Messi by seven points.
The ceremony at the London Palladium starts at 8pm on October 26, when the voting results will settle a men's race the bookmakers currently see as too close to call.
