France Football revealed the 2026 Ballon d’Or voting breakdown on Friday. Harry Kane edged out Kylian Mbappé for the men’s award by the slimmest of margins, finishing 28 points ahead of the Frenchman. The Bayern Munich striker was ranked first by 40 journalists, compared to the 23 who selected Mbappé as the best player in the world. Lamine Yamal, who completed the podium with 881 points, received 13 first-place votes.

The countries that shunned Kane and Mbappé

Kane was left out of the top 10 altogether by voters from just two countries: Mexico and Ivory Coast. Mbappé, meanwhile, failed to make the top 10 on three ballots from the 100 nations represented in the FIFA rankings: Greece, Scotland and Ukraine. Four countries omitted third-place finisher Lamine Yamal from their top 10s: Belarus, Cameroon, Croatia and Greece.

Rodri, who finished fourth overall and was the second-highest ranked Spaniard, received first-place votes from 10 countries: Nigeria, the United States, Guatemala, South Korea, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Thailand, Vietnam, Croatia and Iceland. Fabián Ruiz, who placed 10th, was ranked No. 1 by voters from Gabon, Peru, Syria and Ukraine.

Lionel Messi, who finished fifth overall, received the maximum score from Brazil and five other countries: Argentina, Panama, Belarus, the United Arab Emirates and China. The Asian nation, currently at the center of a controversy involving Mbappé over comments he made about Mao Zedong, ranked the Real Madrid forward fifth. Paraguay, with whom he also had a minor dispute during the World Cup, placed him third, while nearly half of the African countries represented in the vote, nine out of 20, selected him as the best player in the world.

No No.1 nods for Dembélé

One notable detail is that 2025 men’s Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembélé was not chosen as the world’s top player by any country. The PSG star, who finished seventh overall, received second-place votes from seven nations: Burkina Faso, China, France, Georgia, Haiti, North Macedonia and Nigeria. Erling Haaland was also never ranked first and was selected as the second-best player only by voters from Croatia, Northern Ireland and Norway. Another voting curiosity was that the only journalist to place Michael Olise in first place came from Curaçao.

The journalist representing Morocco chose compatriot Achraf Hakimi as the world’s best player, with Lamine Yamal ranked third. As for the other Spanish players, Pau Cubarsí, the highest-ranked defender among the 30 nominees, finished second on the ballots of voters from Jamaica and Switzerland. Ferran Torres, Spain’s World Cup final hero, was placed fourth by Algeria and Croatia, while Greece ranked Marc Cucurella fourth. Decided by a margin of just 28 points, the 2026 men’s Ballon d’Or was the fourth-closest vote in the award’s history. The gap was even smaller than in 2024, when Rodri defeated Vinícius Júnior by only 71 points.

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