Ballon d’Or 2026: Date, Venue, Nominees and How Voting Works

For the first time in its 70-year history, the Ballon d'Or is leaving France for London. The 2026 ceremony will take place on Monday, October 26 at the London Palladium, with the men's and women's awards decided after a season that included not only the Champions League and domestic competitions but also the 2026 World Cup.

The timing gives this year's vote an unusual complexion. The official assessment period ran from August 3, 2025 to July 19, 2026, meaning the entire World Cup is included in the men's Ballon d'Or evaluation. Thirty players have made the final shortlist, with Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappé, Lamine Yamal, Erling Haaland, Ousmane Dembélé and Lionel Messi among the names in contention.

Ballon d’Or 2026 date and venue

The ceremony will be held on Monday, October 26, 2026, at the London Palladium Theatre. It is the first time the modern Ballon d'Or ceremony has been staged in London, with organisers choosing England for the award's 70th anniversary as a tribute to Stanley Matthews, the first winner in 1956.

France Football remains responsible for the Ballon d'Or and its voting process, while the ceremony has been co-organised with UEFA since 2024. Ousmane Dembélé and Aitana Bonmatí won the main men's and women's awards in 2025.

An official start time for the 2026 ceremony has not yet been announced. Broadcast and streaming details are also expected closer to October 26, so those can be added to this page once confirmed.

The 30 nominees for the 2026 men’s Ballon d’Or

UEFA and France Football announced the shortlist on September 8. It includes players from European football as well as Lionel Messi, Sadio Mané and Julián Quiñones, while several nominees changed clubs during or after the season under consideration.

There is no official ranking attached to that list. The 30 names are nominees, not a seeded order, and the eventual result is determined entirely by the Ballon d'Or voting system rather than by the order in which the shortlist was announced.

What period does the 2026 Ballon d’Or cover?

This is one of the most important changes to remember when judging the candidates. The Ballon d'Or is no longer based on a calendar year.

For the 2026 award, France Football defined the reference period as August 3, 2025 to July 19, 2026. Domestic leagues and cups, continental competitions, international football and major national-team tournaments played within that window all count.

For the men's award, that includes the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, which ended on July 19 — the final day of the assessment period. The Africa Cup of Nations is also included.

That is why performances from the opening weeks of the new 2026/27 club season do not affect this year's Ballon d'Or. A goal scored in September 2026, for example, belongs to the next award cycle rather than the one being voted on now.

It is an important distinction for players such as Harry Kane. His extraordinary 73-goal 2025/26 campaign falls inside the Ballon d'Or period, while the Bundesliga goals he has scored since the new season began do not.

How does Ballon d’Or voting work?

The men's Ballon d'Or is decided by 100 specialised journalists, with one voter representing each of the top 100 countries in the FIFA men's ranking at the time the nominees were published. The women's award uses the same principle but limits the jury to representatives of the top 50 countries in the women's FIFA ranking.

Each journalist chooses 10 players from the 30 nominees and ranks them from first to tenth. Points are then awarded according to position:

The points from every ballot are added together and the player with the highest total wins the Ballon d'Or. If two players finish level on points, the first tiebreaker is the number of first-place votes received. If they are still tied, second-place votes are compared, followed by third-place votes and so on.

There is therefore no public fan vote deciding the winner and no separate UEFA panel that chooses the Ballon d'Or. The final men's and women's rankings come from the international journalists selected for the jury.

What are voters supposed to consider?

France Football sets out three criteria, and importantly, they are listed in order of priority.

The first is individual performance, including how decisive and impressive the player was. The second is team performance and trophies won, while the third concerns class and fair play.

That ordering matters because the Ballon d'Or is not officially defined as an award for the player who won the most trophies. Team success is a factor, but individual performance is the primary criterion.

It also explains why debates around the award can become messy. Two voters can accept exactly the same rules but still disagree on how heavily a Champions League title, World Cup performance, goal total or exceptional individual campaign should influence their top ten.

Who chooses the 30 nominees?

The shortlist is compiled before the journalists vote. For 2026, the 30-player lists were drawn up by representatives of France Football and L'Équipe, with input from at least one leading juror from the previous edition and UEFA ambassadors.

For the men's shortlist, UEFA ambassadors Luis Figo and Fabio Capello were involved; Nadine Kessler performed the equivalent role for the women's award.

Once the shortlist is complete, the international jury cannot add another player. Every vote has to come from those 30 nominees.

What other awards will be presented?

The London ceremony is considerably larger than the men's Ballon d'Or alone. The 2026 programme includes men's and women's Ballon d'Or awards, young-player awards, goalkeeper awards, coach awards, Club of the Year and striker awards, as well as the Sócrates Award for social and solidarity initiatives.

The young-player category has its own shortlist, with Lamine Yamal, Pau Cubarsí, Lennart Karl and Warren Zaïre-Emery among this year's men's nominees. Goalkeepers including Thibaut Courtois, Emiliano Martínez and David Raya are nominated for the goalkeeper award, while Mikel Arteta, Luis Enrique, Vincent Kompany, Unai Emery and Luis de la Fuente make up the men's coaching shortlist.

Those awards do not all use exactly the same electoral college as the main Ballon d'Or. In particular, the young-player award is traditionally decided by former Ballon d'Or winners rather than the 100-journalist men's jury.

Why is the 2026 ceremony in London instead of Paris?

The move is deliberately symbolic. France Football created the Ballon d'Or in 1956 and Stanley Matthews, then playing for Blackpool, became its first winner.

Seventy years later, organisers have taken the ceremony to England to mark that anniversary. It is being presented as a special decision for the 2026 edition rather than confirmation that London will become the award's permanent home. Ballon d'Or organisers have said the move is temporary, while leaving open the possibility of future ceremonies outside France.

The awards have been staged outside France before — notably in Zurich during the period of the FIFA Ballon d'Or — but London hosting the modern France Football ceremony is a first.

When will the 2026 Ballon d’Or winner be announced?

The winner will be revealed during the London ceremony on October 26. Until then, France Football does not publish an official running ranking or points table.

That means any lists describing a player as first, second or third before the ceremony are predictions or editorial assessments rather than an official Ballon d'Or standings table.

The eventual ranking will come from the completed jury ballots, with the 2026 winner succeeding Ousmane Dembélé as holder of the men's trophy.

For this year's edition, there is also one factor that makes comparisons with previous races particularly interesting: voters are judging a complete club season and a World Cup in the same reference period. That ensures the 2026 Ballon d'Or will not simply be a referendum on who had the best Champions League campaign or who scored the most league goals — the biggest international tournament in football is part of the same vote.

Published by Patrick Jane
19.09.2026