Harry Kane wins 2026 Ballon d’Or after record-breaking season
publishers 72articles 131first reported 22 Oct, 04:40 UTCdeveloping since 22 Oct · 11 editions
Harry Kane won the 2026 men’s Ballon d’Or after scoring 73 goals for Bayern Munich and England during the 2025-26 season, becoming the first English winner since Michael Owen in 2001.
The 33-year-old England captain received the award at a ceremony in London on Monday, finishing ahead of Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappé and Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal. Kane also received the Gerd Müller Trophy as the season’s leading striker.
Kane scored 61 goals in 51 appearances for Bayern across all competitions, including 36 in the Bundesliga, as the club won the German league and DFB-Pokal. He scored a hat-trick against Stuttgart in the cup final and added 14 goals during Bayern’s run to the Champions League semi-finals.
For England, Kane scored six times at the 2026 World Cup, where the team finished third. Those goals took his World Cup total to 14, moving him past Gary Lineker as England’s leading scorer at the tournament.
Kane thanked his family, teammates and coaches and spoke about overcoming setbacks early in his career. “My journey wasn’t straightforward,” he said, urging young players to draw on “resilience, determination and self-belief.”
Bayern gave Kane a guard of honour before Wednesday’s 6-1 German Cup victory over Magdeburg. He was rested for the match and remained on the bench as Bayern advanced to the next round.
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Written from 8 articles, 7 with the publisher's own text; 8 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 174 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
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- This version written
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