Harry Kane's Ballon d'Or triumph in 2026 ended a 25-year wait for an English winner, and placed the Bayern Munich striker among the oldest players ever to claim football's most prestigious individual prize.

After a stellar campaign which saw him net 73 goals for club and country, Kane received the award at 33 years and 90 days old. That made him five days older than Luka Modric was when he lifted the trophy in 2018.

The ceremony was staged in London for the first time to honour Stanley Matthews, the inaugural winner 70 years earlier. Fittingly, Matthews remains the oldest recipient in the award's history, and by some distance. Here's the full list of the oldest winners.

Who are the Oldest Ballon d'Or Winners in History?

Matthews was 41 years and 321 days old when he was named the first winner of the award in 1956, edging Alfredo Di Stefano, one of the greatest football players of all time, by three points while still starring for Blackpool. Remarkably, he went on to play top-flight football until he was 50.

Nobody has come within five years of that mark. The closest is Lionel Messi, who claimed his record eighth Ballon d'Or in 2023 at 36 years and 128 days, the reward for leading Argentina Football to World Cup glory.

Messi features three times among the 15 oldest wins, demonstrating his incredible longevity at the top level, having also triumphed at 34 in 2021 and at 32 in 2019, when he edged Virgil van Dijk by just seven points.

His greatest adversary, Cristiano Ronaldo, appears twice. His fifth award arrived in 2017, two months shy of his 33rd birthday, while his fourth followed Euro 2016 glory with Portugal and UEFA Champions League success with Real Madrid.

That 2016 win sits just two days behind Josef Masopust, who captained Czechoslovakia to the 1962 World Cup final before claiming the prize at 31 years and 312 days. Di Stefano's first award, in 1957, also makes the top 15.

Karim Benzema is the second-oldest first-time winner behind Matthews, lifting the trophy at 34 years and 302 days in 2022 after firing Real Madrid to a La Liga and Champions League double. Lev Yashin, still the only goalkeeper to win the award and one of the greatest goalkeepers in football history, was 34 years and 56 days old when he was crowned in 1963.

Kane now belongs to a crowded group of 33-year-old winners alongside Di Stefano, Modric and Italian World-Cup winning captain, Fabio Cannavaro. Di Stefano was the oldest of the four, collecting his second award in 1959, while Cannavaro took the prize in 2006 after international glory.

Kane's case was built purely on goals as he reached the peak of his powers. His 61 for Bayern set a 21st-century club record and helped deliver a domestic double, while a second European Golden Shoe underlined his consistency.

He became the first Englishman to win since Michael Owen in 2001 and netted six goals in the 2026 World Cup, losing out in the semi-finals of both that tournament and the Champions League with Bayern.

At the other end of the top 15, Pavel Nedved's 2003 win edged Franz Beckenbauer's 1976 triumph by just five days. The full list of the oldest Ballon d'Or wins is below.