🔥 Ballon d'Or day: who are the leading contenders?

🔥 Ballon d'Or day: who are the leading contenders? The 2025/2026 season had it all: Barcelona crowned champions in Spain, Arsenal champions in England; Bayern, PSG and Inter ruling their leagues, and Spain crowned world champions. With all the team honours handed out, only the individual awards remain, and now comes the biggest of them all: the Ballon d'Or. So let's take a look at the leading contenders to win it... Starting with the men's award... Harry Kane 📸 Alex Grimm - 2026 Getty Images Harry Kane has had a dream season. The Englishman has been sensational in front of goal and a key player for both Bayern Munich and England. The numbers speak for themselves: 73 goals in 65 games. The Golden Shoe winner scored 19 goals more than his closest rivals. Only Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have won more Golden Shoes than the Englishman. In terms of team achievements, he won the Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal, and finished third at the World Cup with England. Kylian Mbappé 📸 LLUIS GENE - AFP or licensors Kylian Mbappé is coming off an outstanding season with Real Madrid and France, even if that was not quite reflected in their team achievements. The Frenchman was the top scorer in La Liga, the Champions League and the World Cup. He scored 58 goals and provided 13 assists in 60 games over the season. He is only the second player to finish as top scorer in both the Champions League and the World Cup in the same year, after Eusébio in 1966. Lamine Yamal 📸 JORGE GUERRERO - AFP or licensors The Barcelona winger has dazzled the world once again. The Barça star scored 25 goals and provided 20 assists in 57 games for FC Barcelona and Spain. He was key to their La Liga title win, earning the league's MVP award, and their Spanish Super Cup triumph. He was also crowned a world champion with Spain. Rodri Hernández 📸 Carl Recine - 2026 Getty Images Rodri Hernández, who already has one Ballon d'Or, is once again among the favourites to claim the individual honour. After all his struggles with a cruciate ligament injury following his EURO triumph, he returned to play an important role for Manchester City. Above all, though, he returned to play a crucial role for Spain at the World Cup, particularly from the round of 16 onwards. The Spanish midfielder was also named the World Cup's best player. Fabián Ruiz 📸 FRANCK FIFE - AFP or licensors Fabián Ruiz: leading the way in team honours and making his mark individually. Fabián won the Champions League for the second consecutive time with PSG, Ligue 1 for the fourth time, the FIFA Intercontinental Cup, the UEFA Super Cup and the French Super Cup. And that was just with the Parisians. He was also hugely important for Spain, winning the World Cup after taking the place of none other than Pedri. This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.