Harry Kane isn’t the world’s best footballer – but deserved Ballon d’Or

After netting over 70 goals for club and country during the 2025-26 season, the former Tottenham striker was awarded the Golden Ball in London on Monday.

• On Monday, London hosted the Ballon d’Or ceremony for the first time, as the great and good from around the footballing world descended on the English capital to celebrate the past 12 months of the beautiful game.Despite the ever-increasing number of prizes that were handed out by hosts Thierry Henry and Kate Scott, the eventual recipient of the men’s Golden Ball remained the biggest topic of debate due to the sheer number of genuine contenders.Convincing arguments could be made for between five and 10 of the players on the 30-man shortlist to go on and claim the most prestigious individual gong in global football. However, there were also not insignificant holes to pick in the cases for each of the pre-ceremony favourites, which in turn made 2026 the most open – and contentious – Ballon d’Or race in decades.Long gone are the days of the Lionel Messi-Cristiano Ronaldo duopoly; every season now starts with a whole bunch of players believing themselves capable of being crowned the best player on the planet. And yet that description of the eventual winner perhaps muddied the waters when it cames to the player who, all along, was obviously the most deserving winner of the 2026 Ballon d’Or: Harry Kane.
• New narrative
• Back in 2019, when asked to offer his opinion on the Ballon d’Or by GIVEMESPORT, former England striker Gary Lineker played down the award’s importance, citing the oft-repeated argument that individual prizes are ultimately worthless within a team sport.However, within his answer, Lineker also pointed out the key difference between what many believe the Ballon d’Or awards, and what its actual purpose has become by analysing Messi’s suitability for the prize in that year.“Being voted best player of the year has become ridiculously over-important. It’s just got silly,” Lineker said. “Because the truth is if it’s the best player of each year, he’d (Messi) win it every year… Messi’s performances last season, prior to the very end of the season where I thought Barcelona started to look a bit tired and a bit old, were unbelievable. His numbers were incredible.”And therein lies the crux of what the Ballon d’Or has become. Rather than simply selecting the best footballer in the world each year, regardless of their achievements or trophies won, the Golden Ball now tends to go to the elite player who enjoyed the best individual season, and whose performances ideally led to their teams winning silverware.Ceremony organisers France Football have made an effort more recently to insist that their magpie-esque judges do not solely base their votes on how many titles a player has won across a season, a habit that eventually led to Jorginho earning a place on the podium in 2021 after he played an important but far from outstanding role in Chelsea winning the Champions League and Italy triumphing at the European Championship. However, there is undoubtedly still a bias towards players who perform in the biggest matches and produce trophy-winning moments on the grandest stages, which could in turn have led to a player other than Kane claiming victory on Monday.There is no doubt, though, that the Bayern Munich striker’s season stood above all others in terms of what he was able to produce as an individual.
• Superb statistics
• Close your eyes and imagine a player who, over the course of a season, scored 73 goals in just 65 appearances for club and country. Thirty-six of those goals, scored at a rate of one every 66 minutes they were on the pitch, fired their club side to the league title. They also netted in every round of the domestic cup competition, scoring 10 times in six games, including a match-winning hat-trick in the final.In the Champions League, meanwhile, this player scored 14 times in 13 games, including goals in all five knockout matches that they appeared in as their side reached the semi-finals. And when it came to the World Cup, they captained their country to third place, their best-ever finish on foreign soil, while scoring six goals (a number bettered by just four other players), including game-winners in two knockout rounds.Impressive, right? Those statistics alone, which of course belong to Kane’s 2025-26 campaign, should have been enough to win any argument when it came to the Ballon d’Or. Only one man – Messi in 2011-12 – has scored more times in a single season during the 21st century than Kane did last term.His output in and around the penalty area is second to none right now, and while Kane’s goals didn’t deliver the two biggest trophies of all, they still earned Bayern silverware and ensured both the Bavarians and England remained in contention deep into continental and global tournaments, respectively.
• All-round asset
• That is not to say, however, that Kane is merely a goal-scorer who waits in the box for his team-mates to provide him with simple chances. Kane is an elite finisher, a scorer of stunning goals, and yet even that description does him a disservice as a footballer.Kane’s all-round game is what marks him out as the outstanding No.9 of his generation, with his willingness to drop deep and make a positive impact on attacks via his passing and movement almost unique amongst his peers at the very top of the game.His tally of just eight assists over the course of last season doesn’t justify the creative force that Kane has become since entering his 30s. For Bayern alone, he created 26 ‘big chances’ across all competitions, and perhaps if his team-mates were as lethal in front of goal as the England skipper, then he would have been near the top of Europe’s assist charts too.Regardless, Kane’s ability to open up the space for others is key to the way that both Vincent Kompany and Thomas Tuchel look to play, and it is no surprise that the widemen and box-crashing midfielders for both Bayern and England have thrived while playing alongside the 33-year-old former Tottenham favourite.
• Wide open race
• But despite all of that, there was a growing feeling that Kane wouldn’t get his hands on the Ballon d’Or that his season-long form deserved. That was partly a result of the race being so open, and the vote potentially being split in ways that we’ve rarely seen in past years.Judges who still believe the Ballon d’Or should reward the ‘best footballer in the world’ could have justifiably chosen Lamine Yamal, even if he failed to deliver the goods from an individual perspective during Spain’s triumphant World Cup, or Kylian Mbappe, who scored almost 60 goals for Real Madrid and France, winning the World Cup Golden Boot in the process, even if he also shouldered plenty of blame for his teams’ failure to win any silverware.Messi’s own heroics during the summer in North America have, meanwhile, even led to suggestions that he is still the top player on the planet, though question marks remain over how seriously his MLS achievements should be taken given the level of competition.Then there will have been judges who gave precedence to Champions League performances, and thus voted for Khvicha Kvaratskhelia after his brilliant displays in the knockout rounds for Paris Saint-Germain, even though his Ligue 1 performances rarely hit the same level. There will be some who considered the World Cup above all else, too, meaning Player of the Tournament Rodri found himself in the mix despite a middling campaign at Manchester City.
• Quiet campaign
• Kane’s case wasn’t helped by the extremely loud PR war that surrounded the voting process. Barcelona and Real Madrid, in particular, were busy campaigning for Yamal and Mbappe, respectively, while both individuals were keen to state their own cases whenever given the opportunity.Add in the push from Messi’s Argentina team-mates for him to claim a ninth Golden Ball, as well as infrequent calls from those around PSG for Kvaratskhelia or one of their other Champions League winners to pick up the prize, and Kane’s case wasn’t publicly made to anywhere near the same level.“I don’t have this Ballon d’Or in my mind every day,” said Bayern boss Kompany when asked whether Kane or Olise should win just over a week before the ceremony, thus perfectly illustrating the point. “I hope a Bayern player wins, but of course, it’s more important to me that we win titles with Bayern.”Kane, too, did little to help his own cause away from the pitch when compared to some of his rivals. His most eye-catching quotes on the matter – if you can call them that – came during a September interview with Marca, when he said: “I’ve never liked to talk about myself too much. The only thing I would say is that last season was incredible, on a personal level and as a team. It was, by far, the best season of my life.”“It’s true that to finish on 73 goals, the second-highest tally in history, speaks for itself,” he added. “I’m extremely proud of that. I can only thank my team-mates and everyone who has helped me to make that possible.”
• Unappreciated icon
• There are those who will never appreciate Kane for what he truly is, and all he can do to persuade his detractors to change their minds is score goals. Last season, he did so by the truckload.
• Yamal and Mbappe’s time will surely come. But in 2026, they must bow to Harry Kane – winner of the Ballon d’Or.

Source: Goal.com