Messi, Mbappe and the top candidates for the 2026 Ballon d'Or award

Martin Macdonald

• Updated: 28 Sep 2025 14:31 CDT
• 2 min read

Analysis

Ousmane Dembele picked up football’s most prestigious individual prize last Monday as he won the 2025 Ballon d’Or.

Dembele claimed the award after a sensational 2024-25 season for PSG.

The Frenchman scored 35 goals in 53 games to lead PSG to a historic quadruple and a first Champions League trophy in the club’s history.

But who win the Ballon d’Or in 2026? Here are the potential early contenders.

Yamal the early favourite?

Lamine Yamal, who finished second this year, has a real chance of winning the prize as a teenager. Spain are favourites to win the World Cup and Barcelona are a challenger for the Champions League, so with Yamal’s star quality, he will be in the frame.

Lionel Messi will turn 39 during the World Cup, but if he can lead Argentina to back-to-back successes, then it is inevitable that he will be a candidate for a ninth Ballon d’Or. This year, he wasn’t nominated, but he will surely be back next year.

Kylian Mbappe, who finished seventh, has still not won the Ballon d’Or, but he has started the season well for a rejuvenated Real Madrid. If Los Blancos can win the Champions League and France go deep or claim the World Cup, this could be the Parisian’s year.

Harry Kane continues to plunder home goal after goal for Bayern Munich and England. If he leads either club or country to Champions League or World Cup success, then the 32-year-old could become the first Englishman to win the Ballon d’Or since Michael Owen in 2001.

Erling Haaland looks like he is going to break a ton of scoring records this season based on his start to the season. If Man City were to win major honours, then Haaland will be a challenger. However, he will be penalised by the fact it will be hard for Norway to go too far in the World Cup, even if they are set to finally qualify again.

Other early contenders with the bookmakers include Liverpool duo Mo Salah and Florian Wirtz, England’s Cole Palmer and Jude Bellingham, PSG’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Brazilian duo Vinicius Jr and Raphinha, as well as Inter’s Lautaro Martinez and Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Then, of course, could Dembele win it back-to-back? And what about a 41-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo if Portugal were to win the World Cup?