Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe won the Ballon d’Or’s Gerd Muller award for scoring the most goals in Europe, though Real Madrid forward Mbappe did not attend the ceremony in Paris.

England captain Kane, who joined Bayern Munich from Tottenham last summer, scored 44 goals in 45 competitive games in his first season with the German club.

Mbappe netted 44 goals in 48 appearances in his final season with Paris St-Germain.

The France forward was not at the ceremony at Paris’ Theatre du Chatelet along with the rest of his Real Madrid representatives.

According to AFP and several Spanish news outlets, Real Madrid cancelled plans to attend after hearing that Vinicius Junior would not win the men’s award.

The European champions told AFP that its delegation would not go “where it is not respected” after learning Vinicius, favourite to win the award, would not be crowned the world’s best male player.

“Thank you to my club Bayern Munich, all my staff, teammates, for helping me score all the goals I scored,” Kane said.

“It’s an honour to take this award from a club legend [Karl-Heinz Rummenigge]. It was a new chapter for me. Going to Germany, taking my family with me was a new experience, I didn’t know what to expect.

“To get off to the start I did, credit to my teammates. I went along for the ride and we had a good season.”

When ceremony co-host Didier Drogba asked Kane what area of his game he would like to improve, the England captain replied: “My speed. Although age might be catching up with me.”

Carlo Ancelotti and Emma Hayes have won the inaugural Johan Cruyff Awards, given to the best coaches in the men’s and women’s games at the 2024 Ballon d’Or ceremony.

Ancelotti guided Real Madrid to a record-extending 15th Champions League crown last season as well as the La Liga title.

Hayes guided Chelsea to a fifth consecutive Women’s Super League (WSL) title last season, as well as the final of the Women’s League Cup and the semi-finals of the Women’s Champions League and Women’s FA Cup.

At the end of last season Hayes left Chelsea to become head coach of the United States Women’s National Team.

Neither were in Paris to collect their awards as Hayes is in the United States before a game against Argentina, and Real Madrid did not send any representatives the ceremony.

More to follow.

Spain and Barcelona midfielder Aitana Bonmati has won the women’s Ballon d’Or for the second year in a row.

Bonmati won every possible trophy at club level last season as Barcelona secured a historic quadruple – winning Liga F, the Champions League, Supercopa and Copa de la Reina.

The 26-year-old scored a career-best tally of 19 goals across all four competitions.

Bonmati also spearheaded Spain’s charge to the inaugural Women’s Nations League title in February with four goals, including one in their 2-0 win over France in the final.

England’s Lauren James achieved a 13th-place finish, while her Lionesses team-mates Lucy Bronze and Lauren Hemp finished 20th and 28th in the voting, respectively.

Emma Hayes became the first winner of the women’s coach of the year award after leading Chelsea to a fifth straight Women’s Super League title before guiding the United States to Olympic gold at Paris 2024.

Aljamain Sterling likes his chances against Ilia Topuria.

This past Saturday, Topuria secured the first defense of his featherweight title, stopping former champion Max Holloway in the main event of UFC 308. Topuria is now the first person to finish Holloway with strikes and given his second-round knockout of Alexander Volkanovski earlier this year, “El Matador” has established himself as one of the most devastating strikers in the sport currently, so much so that even his possible future opponent was impressed.

“I ain’t standing with that guy. I would never stand and trade with that guy!” Sterling said on his YouTube channel. “I saw comments from the reaction, ‘You should change weight classes.’ I thought that was so funny… I made a joke, ‘I want to go back to 135.’ [Laughs] …

“I’ll point to the ground but I’ll do my running man dance instead.”

All kidding aside, Sterling may soon be in a position to face Topuria.

Volkanovski appears to be next up for Topuria, with Diego Lopes waiting in the wings, but the former bantamweight champion faces Movsar Evloev at UFC 310 and the winner could also be in the mix for a shot at the champion. And should that happen, “The Funkmaster” believes he can give Topuria a run for his money.

“If I were to fight him, god willing, I beat Movsar and I do get the crack, I do think I have a great style to neutralize his offense,” Sterling said. “Bro, most of these guys are striking with him. I ain’t doing that, bro! I ain’t doing that. We’re sitting there looking for a takedown. I have to make it a grappling match. I’m trying to the the W, I’m not trying to get my brain and my head sent to the next dimension again. I’m cool on that.”

Sterling notably lost his UFC bantamweight when he was knocked out by Sean O’Malley last year at UFC 292. Following that loss, Sterling moved up to featherweight where he defeated Calvin Kattar in his debut.

After he left bantamweight, his longtime friend and teammate Merab Dvalishvili dethroned O’Malley to become the 135-pound champion. And for Sterling, that might be the only downside to a matchup with Topuria: making Merab choose sides.

“Merab and I are boys. Merab is also boys with Ilia, so I don’t know what that turns into,” Sterling said. “… Thankfully I don’t have to worry about that anytime soon. I’ve got one other tough opponent in front of me and then we kind of go from there.”

UFC 310 takes place on on Dec. 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

The defending NASCAR Cup Series champion, Ryan Blaney, was seconds away from securing his place in the Championship 4 when ‘The Beast’, Tyler Reddick, ripped around the outside of his No. 12 Team Penske Ford — taking the win and leaving Blaney to deal with his bitter emotions from such a brutal loss.

“I had a good shot to win it and I didn’t have a very good last lap,” admitted Blaney. “I thought I got into three hard and the 45 [Reddick] just went in there and it stuck for him, which is really impressive. I hate to give one away there like that.”

Tyler Reddick, 23XI Racing, The Beast Killer Sunrise Toyota Camry

Photo by: Gavin Baker / NKP / Motorsport Images

Setting up the final dash to the finish — Blaney managed to hold Kyle Larson back until the Hendrick Motorsports driver spun. This put Blaney in a position to aggressively defend against Chase Elliott after getting put three-wide on the restart. He successfully ran down Denny Hamlin as well, but Blaney couldn’t stop Reddick, who was running third with slightly older tires. Reddick didn’t appear to be a real threat. but in the course of a single lap, he stole the show.

As Reddick pulled alongside him, Blaney had the opportunity to get physical,  but he chose not to. The 2023 Cup champ believed he could still get the run off the corner and clear the 23XI Racing driver. In truth, Reddick was already clear of him before he could possibly respond.

“I kind of thought I could slide up and be good and I sent it in there and he sent it in there miles further than me, which I cannot believe that it stuck,” admitted Blaney. “The Toyotas could do that really good all day. Their entry speed was crazy fast and it benefitted him there. It stinks. It was an up and down day and it was a shame to lose one on the last lap like that.”

“We got the lead back after losing it on the restart and just that last lap didn’t play out for us,” Blaney said. “I appreciate everybody on the 12 team for bringing a really fast race car. I had a really great shot to go to Phoenix and I still have one more chance, so we still have to look forward to that … . It is a shame. I will be thinking through it all night of what I should have done different, probably. That is just the way it goes but I am really proud of the effort and hopefully we can bring it to them next week.”

Moving forward, Blaney noted that he tries ‘not to stew over’ moments like this, regrouping and looking ahead to the next battle at Martinsville Speedway. It will be his last shot to advance into the Championship 4 and looking at the points situation, he’s going to have to win. But there is some good news: Blaney is the defending winner of that event.