Ballon d’Or 2026 Power Rankings

The dust has hardly had a chance to settle on Ousmane Dembele’s 2025 Ballon d’Or win, but football moves faster than the speed of light, and so attention has already turned to who could win next year’s Golden Ball, handed to the best player in the world for the 2025/26 season.

Will Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo make a shock return to football’s pedestal? In a World Cup year, almost anything is possible, but it’s safer to place your bets on star players representing one of the favourites for next year’s showpiece prize.

Meanwhile, clubs such as Real Madrid, Liverpool, and Paris Saint-Germain – each of whom have started the campaign in scintillating form – will have players in contention to hoist the Ballon d’Or, with league and Champions League winners traditionally holding a strong influence at the ceremony.

In the past, the prestigious individual accolade was based on the performance of footballers across a calendar year. However, this time around – for the fourth time in the award’s history – the votes are based on the results of the season. With that in mind, we’ve listed – and ranked – the 20 players who are best placed to win the 2026 Ballon d’Or based on their respective team’s chances of success as well as their current form.

Ranking factors

We’ve determined the order based on the following:

• Goals scored
• Assists
• Clean sheets (if defensive-minded)
• Trophies won/challenged for (expected to)
• Big moments in the 2025/26 season
• General form

10

Ousmane Dembele

Paris Saint-Germain & France

Continuing to perform at the same heights he reached in the 2024/25 season is always going to be difficult for Ousmane Dembele, who seemed to be a completely different player last term to the one that flopped at Barcelona all those years ago. But, as of right now, it’s difficult to see a situation where he crashes and burns out of contention for the 2026 edition of football’s biggest individual prize.

More than capable of playing in any position across the frontline, the fleet-footed Frenchman already has two goals and the same number of assists in four Ligue 1 appearances, and after PSG thumped Atalanta 4-0 in their opening game of this season’s Champions League, Luis Enrique looks to be building a dynasty, with Dembele the crown jewel. Retaining the Ballon d’Or will be extremely difficult, but write him off at your peril.

9

Michael Olise

Bayern Munich & France

It’s fair to say that Michael Olise has exceeded expectations at Bayern Munich following his £50 million move from Crystal Palace in the summer of 2024. That transfer fee now looks extremely good value for one of the world’s most in-form wingers, who is currently scoring goals and providing assists for fun in the Bundesliga.

Still only 23 years old, Olise will certainly be in the Ballon d’Or conversation if he manages to help France win the 2026 World Cup. Plenty of Premier League clubs will be kicking themselves that they were unable to keep this hugely talented forward in England’s top division.

8

Declan Rice

Arsenal & England

Is there a better all-action midfielder or set-piece maestro in world football right now? Chelsea’s Moises Caicedo runs Declan Rice close, but the Arsenal and England star has been outstanding during the opening weeks of the 2025-26 season. Nobody is questioning that £100 million transfer fee now, two years on from his controversial transfer from West Ham.

If Rice inspires Arsenal to their first Premier League title since 2004, and then helps England to go far at the 2026 World Cup finals, then it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that he’ll be on the Ballon d’Or podium in 2026. There’s an awful long way to go, of course, but right now he’s playing like a man possessed.

7

Vinicius Jr

Real Madrid & Brazil

After refusing to attend the Ballon d’Or ceremony in 2024 upon finding out he wasn’t going to win the award, Vinicius Jr was then made to wait even longer for the chance to be crowned the first Brazilian since Kaka to claim the prestigious trophy, thanks to Real Madrid’s trophyless season last term. It is understandable why the winger was caught off guard by the fact he didn’t win in the 2024 go-around. After all, he had been the favourite even on the day of the gala.

It wasn’t meant to be for Vinicius, but if he can put in another campaign that is on par with or exceeds what he has done in the last couple of years – with Los Blancos looking a little better under Xabi Alonso already – he may very well be the front-runner in 12 months’ time. That said, some of his biggest adversaries may well be playing for the same teams as him.

6

Luis Diaz

Bayern Munich & Colombia

Liverpool’s decision to let Luis Diaz leave Anfield for Bayern Munich is looking increasingly suspect by the week. Arne Slot may argue that the Colombian winger wanted to depart the club in the summer, and so a sale made sense for all parties, but the Reds have missed him during the opening weeks of the 2025-26 campaign.

Liverpool’s loss has been Bayern’s gain. In his first 16 games of the season, Diaz had already chipped in with 10 goals (including two against PSG at the Parc des Princes) and five assists. Bayern will be serious challengers for both the Bundesliga and Champions League this season. The only thing that may cost him from a Ballon d’Or perspective is the fact Colombia are unlikely to win next summer’s World Cup.

5

Pedri

Barcelona & Spain

They might have been searching for years, but Barcelona may have finally found their long-term successor to Andres Iniesta. Bought from Las Palmas back in 2019, Pedri has emerged as the next best thing in Spain, and when you look at the kind of impact he is already making on his side, you can see why the hype is justified, with manager Hansi Flick recently claiming he can’t be compared to anyone else in his position right now.

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His silky feet and progressive passing make him feel like a La Masia product, and it’s not a stretch to say that not only is he the future of Barcelona’s midfield, but under Luis de la Fuente for Spain too. Widely considered one of the best midfielders in world football right now, his ridiculous quality in the middle of the park will only improve further as he’s still only 22.

4

Erling Haaland

Manchester City & Norway

By the standards Erling Haaland set in his first season at Manchester City, his follow-up campaigns may, on the face of it, have seemed a little underwhelming – that’s even though he still claimed the Premier League Golden Boot in one of his next two terms. However, he has come flying out of the blocks this season, and few players have started as dominantly as him.

In a world where robot lifeforms are a genuine thing, Haaland proves he might just be walking machinery himself. The way he bulldozed his way through both Arsenal and Manchester United to notch three goals in those key fixtures was a statement of intent from the big Viking, and with Guardiola’s side finding their feet again after a period of transition, the rest of the continent should be worried.

3

Lamine Yamal

Barcelona & Spain

There has never been a teenage winner of the Ballon d’Or before. It’s remarkable that Lamine Yamal still has another couple of years to achieve this feat. If he continues his incredible upward trajectory, all bets are off as to whether he can really do it. His current form, combined with his superstardom, makes him something of a shoo-in in years to come – but could he do it in 2026?

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Having already put one of the biggest clubs in Europe on his back since he was 15 and helped lead his country to a European Championship at 16, Yamal is clearly a fearless individual who embodies the phrase “if you’re good enough, you’re old enough.” He’s broken several records already, but could this one potentially be his finest? His manager, Hansi Flick, believes there’s only one better player in world football right now, and many onlookers have been quick to question whether Lionel Messi was ever as good as Yamal was during his youth.

2

Harry Kane

Bayern Munich & England

Harry Kane is modern football’s answer to Wayne Rooney. Yes, he will absolutely score 20 goals a season, but he’ll also hit double figures in the assist rankings and spend about 30% of his time playing as a holding midfielder just to find that added space to work his magic. The England captain became his nation’s top goalscorer in 2023, as well as reaching second place in the all-time Premier League scoring charts after scoring an incredible 213 times for Tottenham.

His move to Bayern Munich has been a roaring success to date, as he managed to win the first piece of silverware in his career in the form of the Bundesliga. After the first 16 games of the 2025/26 season, he’d already found the back of the net 22 times while chalking up three further assists for teammates – back that up with a World Cup and/or Champions League triumph, and he could become England’s first Ballon d’Or recipient since Michael Owen’s win in 2001.

1

Kylian Mbappe

Real Madrid & France

It feels like an inevitability that at some point in his career, Kylian Mbappe will stand on top of the podium lifting the famous golden ball. The French forward has been touted as a future successor to Messi and Ronaldo – but now in his mid-20s, he’s edging closer to cementing his status as the world’s best footballer with an absurd amount of goals to his name season-on-season.

Mbappe, who scored 256 times for Paris Saint-Germain across 305 appearances, took a few months to get going at Real Madrid after joining last summer. But after having won the European Golden Shoe last term with 31 goals in 34 La Liga games, and having now already managed to notch 18 goals in 15 appearances across all competitions this term, the Frenchman is blitzing his way to the top. With France and Los Blancos, he has every reason to believe he can win the lot in 2026.

Ballon d’Or Power Rankings: Full Top 20

All statistics in this article are via Transfermarkt – correct as of 17/11/2025.