Ballon d'Or 2026: Voting Concluded, 70th Edition in London — An Open Race from Kane to Yamal, Messi to Rodri

The 70th Ballon d'Or ceremony will take place at the London Palladium on October 26, 2026. Voting is complete: 100 journalists from the top 100 FIFA-ranked nations each ranked 10 players using the 15-12-10-8-7-5-4-3-2-1 points system. The criteria — individual brilliance, team success, quality of play and fairness — are deliberately subjective, and no one has emerged as a clear favourite. Harry Kane leads the betting market, followed by Lamine Yamal, Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Rodri. Kane's goal-based argument is traditional but unverified in the reporting; Yamal and Mbappe's self-declarations have triggered a backlash. Messi, at 39, represents longevity rather than peak athletic performance, while a timeline contradiction in the source (Spain as world champions vs Messi's conditional World Cup) raises reliability concerns. PSG fields three candidates — Dembele, Kvaratskhelia and Fabian Ruiz — with strong domestic sentiment that the award should go to a PSG player. With roughly 2,000 guests attending, the 70th edition is as much a commercial showcase as a football prize. The result will signal whether the Ballon d'Or chooses legacy, present, or future.