Dembele, Mbappe, Kane and Yamal top Ballon d’Or shortlist

France Football on Tuesday published the 2026 Ballon d’Or shortlists, selecting 30 men and 30 women from worldwide candidates. The winners will be revealed at an awards ceremony in London on October 26, a relocation from the event’s usual Paris setting to mark the 70th anniversary of the first Ballon d’Or won by Stanley Matthews.

Among the men’s frontrunners are last year’s receiver Ousmane Dembélé, Kylian Mbappé and Harry Kane. Dembélé arrives as the defending champion and is buoyed by consecutive Champions League success with Paris Saint-Germain, while Mbappé’s recent World Cup campaign saw him become the all-time top World Cup scorer with 22 goals. Kane enjoyed a prolific season, scoring 73 goals for club and country, winning the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich and helping England to a third-place finish at the World Cup.

Paris Saint-Germain supply a large contingent of nominees: nine PSG players were on the men’s list (ten if newly signed Ferran Torres is included). Other PSG nominees include Achraf Hakimi, Marquinhos, Nuno Mendes and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia; Torres scored Spain’s winner in the World Cup final. In an interview with France Football, Dembélé said he expects the trophy to stay with a PSG player and listed several peers he considered among his top picks while notably not placing himself first.

The women’s shortlist features established stars such as two-time winner Alexia Putellas, Ewa Pajor and Melchie Dumornay. Aitana Bonmatí, who had won the previous three women’s awards, was not selected after missing most of the season through injury despite returning at the end of Barcelona’s quadruple-winning campaign. Organisers say voting will be carried out by one journalist from each of the top 100 FIFA-ranked countries for the men’s prize and from the top 50 for the women’s, with the performance window covering August 3, 2025 to July 19, 2026 — concluding on the day of this year’s World Cup final.