The points were revealed days after the London ceremony, where the Bayern Munich star claimed the award for the first time in his career, becoming the first English winner since Michael Owen in 2001.
Kane collected 1055 points to Mbappé’s 1027, a gap of just 28 points. Lamine Yamal finished third with 881 points, trailing the Frenchman by 146 points and the winner by 174.
The Ballon d’Or Top 10: Full Points Breakdown
Rodri and Lionel Messi secured places in the top five, while Khvicha Kvaratskhelia finished ahead of his teammate Ousmane Dembélé, the previous year’s winner. Erling Haaland, Michael Olise and Fabián Ruiz completed the top 10.
| Position | Player | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harry Kane | 1055 |
| 2 | Kylian Mbappé | 1027 |
| 3 | Lamine Yamal | 881 |
| 4 | Rodri | 726 |
| 5 | Lionel Messi | 612 |
| 6 | Khvicha Kvaratskhelia | 541 |
| 7 | Ousmane Dembélé | 418 |
| 8 | Erling Haaland | 378 |
| 9 | Michael Olise | 296 |
| 10 | Fabián Ruiz | 201 |
Kvaratskhelia finished 123 points ahead of Dembélé, while Rodri led Messi by 114 points. Three previous Ballon d’Or winners featured among the top seven.
40 Journalists Picked Kane First, but Mbappé Gained Ground Elsewhere
Kane topped 40 ballots, compared with 23 for Mbappé, while 13 journalists placed Lamine Yamal first, according to the details reported by Cadena SER, citing L’Équipe.
First-place selections alone earned Kane 600 points, compared with Mbappé’s 345, a difference of 255. However, the Frenchman collected 682 points from the remaining positions, against Kane’s 455, recovering most of that deficit to finish just 28 points behind.
Vincent Garcia, France Football’s editor-in-chief, had revealed that the lead changed during the voting period and that Mbappé had not trailed Kane throughout the race.
Garcia said: “Mbappé led the race for a long time, but Kane came back, and it was ultimately decided by very few points.”
Germany and Spain Backed Mbappé, Saudi Arabia and Oman Chose Kane
According to the country-by-country lists circulating, one of the most notable choices came from Germany’s representative, who ranked Mbappé first despite Kane’s exceptional season in German football. Spain’s representative also placed the Real Madrid forward at the top.
Among the Arab representatives, Saudi Arabia and Oman ranked Kane first, while Egypt, Iraq, Qatar, Bahrain and Palestine chose Mbappé.
The 40 countries whose representatives ranked Kane first were: South Africa, England, Angola, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Scotland, Ireland, Haiti, Hungary, Iran, Northern Ireland, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Kosovo, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Norway, New Zealand, Oman, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Poland, Russia, El Salvador, Senegal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Uruguay and Venezuela.
The 23 countries whose representatives ranked Mbappé first were: Spain, Germany, Bahrain, Benin, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ecuador, Finland, France, Ghana, Guinea, Iraq, Italy, Mali, Palestine, Paraguay, the Netherlands, Qatar, DR Congo, Romania and Zambia.
Ecuador’s representative, Patricio Cornejo, had already announced his choice of Mbappé, while Australian journalist Daniel Garb revealed that he preferred Kane, citing the goalscoring difference between the two players over the season.
Kane Sixth on the Ballot Attributed to France Football’s Editor-in-Chief
Among the most striking ballots was the one attributed to Vincent Garcia, which placed the eventual winner sixth, behind five players led by Mbappé.
The first seven positions on that ballot were:
- Kylian Mbappé.
- Ousmane Dembélé.
- Lamine Yamal.
- Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.
- Lionel Messi.
- Harry Kane.
- Michael Olise.
Those selections gave Mbappé 15 points and Kane five, handing the Frenchman a 10-point advantage over his rival on the ballot attributed to the editor-in-chief of the magazine that awards the trophy.
Immediately after the ceremony, Garcia had declined to reveal his vote, saying only that he had chosen a player who did not win. He explained that he was respecting his own request for jury members not to disclose their ballots before their publication in the magazine.
Ballots That Left Kane, Mbappé and Yamal Out Entirely
The ballot details circulating showed that two journalists left Kane outside their top 10, while three omitted Mbappé and four excluded Lamine Yamal.
The Greek representative’s vote was among the most controversial, leaving both Mbappé and Yamal off the list despite their second- and third-place finishes overall.
Mbappé also finished outside the top three on the Ukrainian, Greek and Scottish ballots, although those were not necessarily the only ballots to place him outside the podium positions.
Beyond complete omissions, there were considerable differences in how the leading candidates were ranked. Australia’s representative placed Messi third, Rodri fourth, Olise fifth and Yamal sixth, despite the Barcelona winger finishing third in the overall standings.
Did Three Ballots Cost Mbappé the Ballon d’Or?
Mbappé’s omission from three ballots revived comparisons with Vinícius Júnior in 2024, when the Brazilian was left out by the representatives of Finland, Namibia and El Salvador and lost to Rodri by 41 points.
The voting system awards 15 points for first place, 12 for second, 10 for third, eight for fourth, seven for fifth and five for sixth. The remaining positions receive four, three, two and one point respectively, while a player omitted from a ballot receives none.
For Mbappé, finishing third on all three ballots would have added 30 points to his total, enough to exceed the margin separating him from Kane. Finishing tenth on those same ballots, however, would have earned him only three additional points.
The narrow margin therefore made those ballots highly significant, but Mbappé’s omission alone does not establish that they cost him the award. Any alternative result would depend on where he had been ranked and Kane’s position on each ballot.
The same applies to the comparison with Vinícius: in 2024, eventual winner Rodri was omitted from five ballots, compared with three for the Brazilian.
Rodri and Yamal Shared Support for Spain’s World Champions
Garcia’s explanation extended beyond the Kane-Mbappé contest. He believed that the number of outstanding players in Spain’s World Cup-winning side affected Lamine Yamal’s chances of securing greater support.
He said: “Rodri took votes away from Lamine in this ballot,” suggesting that Spain’s collective strength made it harder to single out one player.
Yamal finished third with 881 points, ahead of fourth-placed Rodri on 726, while Fabián Ruiz also reached the top 10 with 201 points.
Garcia also addressed Paris Saint-Germain’s results. Despite their European triumph, none of their players reached the top five. He argued that promoting several candidates had diluted the club’s message and that backing defending winner Dembélé earlier would have been the better approach.
Where Does the Kane-Mbappé Gap Rank Among the Closest Races?
The 28-point margin was smaller than the gap between Rodri and Vinícius in 2024. However, it was not the fourth-smallest numerical margin in the award’s history, as some reports claimed, with several earlier editions producing closer results.
Notable examples include:
| Edition | Winner | Runner-up | Points Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1956 | Stanley Matthews | Alfredo Di Stéfano | 3 |
| 1972 | Franz Beckenbauer | Gerd Müller and Günter Netzer, tied | 2 |
| 1977 | Allan Simonsen | Kevin Keegan | 3 |
| 1996 | Matthias Sammer | Ronaldo Nazário | 1 |
| 2019 | Lionel Messi | Virgil van Dijk | 7 |
| 2026 | Harry Kane | Kylian Mbappé | 28 |
The award’s records show that Sammer won by a single point in 1996 and Messi by seven in 2019, while only three points separated Simonsen and Keegan in 1977. Comparisons between these margins must also account for changes in the number of voters and the points system over the years.
The Season That Delivered Kane’s First Ballon d’Or
Kane entered the race after scoring 73 goals for Bayern Munich and England during the 2025-2026 season, including 61 for his club, alongside domestic silverware and a run to the Champions League semi-finals.
Mbappé, meanwhile, finished as La Liga’s leading scorer for the second consecutive season and scored 10 goals for France at the World Cup. However, he could not turn those numbers into his first Ballon d’Or, instead recording his best finish after placing third in 2023.
Kane’s triumph at 33 carried several historical milestones. He became the first English winner in a quarter of a century and the first player representing a German club to claim the award since Matthias Sammer in 1996, on a night when London hosted the ceremony for the first time to mark the trophy’s 70th anniversary.
