Kane scored 73 goals and won the German double. That was enough to end England's 25-year Ballon d'Or wait.
Harry Kane became the first English Ballon d'Or winner since 2001 with 73 goals for Bayern Munich and England, in a year when he won neither the World Cup nor the Champions League.
Harry Kane won the men's Ballon d'Or at the London Palladium on Monday night, beating Kylian Mbappé and Lamine Yamal. 1 He is 33, and the first Englishman to win it since Michael Owen in 2001. 2 Stanley Matthews, Bobby Charlton and Kevin Keegan came before him. 2
The season that won it
Kane scored 61 goals in 51 club games for Bayern Munich, a single-season record for a club that once had Gerd Müller. 2 He finished 19 goals clear of any other player in Europe's top five leagues. 2 Nobody there had scored 61 since Cristiano Ronaldo in 2015. 2
The split was 36 in the Bundesliga, 17 clear of the next man, plus 14 in the Champions League and 10 in the German Cup. 2 That cup run ended with a hat-trick in a 3-0 final win over Stuttgart. 2
For England he scored 12, six of them at the World Cup, where he passed Gary Lineker as the country's leading World Cup scorer. 2 The season total was 73 goals in 65 matches. 2 Only Lionel Messi's 82 in 2011-12 beats that among players in Europe's top leagues. 2
Two trophies, two semi-finals
The cabinet gained the Bundesliga and the German Cup. 2 England lost a World Cup semi-final to Argentina, then beat France to finish third. 1 Bayern lost a Champions League semi-final. 2
Kane is only the fifth man in 20 years to win it without a World Cup, Champions League, European Championship or Copa América that year. 2 He is also the first winner based in Germany since Matthias Sammer in 1996. 3
How the vote fell
Mbappé was second, Yamal third, Rodri fourth and Lionel Messi fifth. 1 Alexia Putellas took the women's award for a record-equalling third time. 4
Hours before the ceremony, the award's own website published an article headed "Harry Kane wins the 2026 Ballon d'Or", plus profiles of Yamal and Mbappé. 5 Organisers said the profiles had been "prepared for all nominees" and should not be read as a result. 5
What he said
Kane's best previous finish was 10th. 2 "I was never the person that people thought was going to be the superstar," he said. "A lot of times it was me against my own mind." 2
Quote of the Day
"Anything is possible with hard work, when no one else is watching, to go through the ups and downs, to learn through resilience, determination and self-belief." — Harry Kane, via AP, 26 October 2026 6
References
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