Harry Kane Nears England’s First Ballon d’Or Win in 25 Years After 73-Goal Season

• Harry Kane has been named on the 30-man shortlist for the 2026 Ballon d’Or after scoring 73 goals in 64 games for Bayern Munich and England last season.
• Kane is the bookmakers’ favourite to win the award and could become the first Englishman to lift it after Michael Owen in 2001.
• Bayern Munich’s own executives have said “it can only be Harry Kane,” while Cristiano Ronaldo was left off the shortlist entirely.

The Nomination That Caps a Season Built on 73 Goals

Harry Kane spent a decade at Tottenham scoring goals nobody outside England seemed to notice. He broke club records, became England’s all-time leading scorer, and never won a trophy doing it. Three years into his move to Bayern Munich, that story looks very different. The 2026 Ballon d’Or shortlist was announced on Tuesday, and Kane sits on it as the bookmakers’ favourite, built on a season in which he scored 73 goals in 64 games and finally started collecting the medals to match his numbers.

If he wins in October, Kane would become the first English player to take the award home after Michael Owen in 2001, ending a wait of a quarter of a century.

“It Can Only Be Harry Kane”

Bayern Munich are not being subtle about their support for Kane’s campaign. Rouven Kasper, a member of the club’s executive board, put it plainly to Sky Sports: “It can only be Harry Kane. We can just give it to Harry.” The club’s sporting director, Christoph Freund, has made similar comments in public, and the push extends beyond words. Bayern see a Ballon d’Or winner as a marketing platform as much as an individual honour, and with a new contract on the table for Kane, they want to be seen fighting for it.

Kasper laid out the case with specifics rather than sentiment. “Seventy-three goals in 64 games. A hat-trick in the cup final.” He also pointed to a scoring landmark few strikers ever reach: it took Kane just 78 Bundesliga matches to register his 100th goal contribution for the club, which Kasper called “the shortest time in history.” Kane also scored six goals at the World Cup for England that summer, finishing as one of the tournament’s top scorers alongside Kylian Mbappe.

A Trophy Cabinet That Finally Matches the Numbers

Kane’s goals came with silverware attached for the first time in his career. Bayern won the double last season, and Kane lifted the Franz Beckenbauer Supercup in Dortmund on top of that, adding a third trophy to his collection in Germany. He also finished well clear of Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe to win the European Golden Shoe, the continent’s top scorer award, for a season in which sheer scoring volume put him ahead of every rival.

Asked about the affection Bayern have shown him throughout the push, Kane pointed to more than his finishing. “I feel the love from this club, I know how much they appreciate me. Not just my goals but I think my all-round game and also me as a person in the changing room as well, the whole package,” he said.

His Best Chance in a Career of Near Misses

Kane has never finished higher than 10th in Ballon d’Or voting before this year, but the situation around him has shifted. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was the outstanding player in the Champions League last season but missed the World Cup entirely. Lamine Yamal lifted the World Cup with Spain but had a quiet tournament individually. With no single dominant candidate standing above the field, voters are being asked to weigh a season of pure output against moments of tournament brilliance, and Kane’s case rests on volume nobody else in the field can match.

Kane is joined on the 30-man shortlist by England teammates Jude Bellingham and Declan Rice, along with Bayern Munich colleagues Michael Olise, Luis Diaz and Dayot Upamecano. Manchester City’s Haaland, Arsenal pair Gabriel and William Saliba, and Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes also made the list, which was compiled by journalists from France Football working with L’Equipe. The winner will be decided by one voter from each of the top 100 FIFA-ranked nations, each ranking their top 10 players from the shortlist on a points system running from 15 down to one.

The most notable absence from the list is Cristiano Ronaldo, left out entirely after winning the Saudi Pro League with Al-Nassr. Lionel Messi, still playing at 39 for Inter Miami, and Kylian Mbappe round out the small group of players considered Kane’s most realistic rivals for the trophy.

A Quarter of a Century Without an English Winner

Kane Says His 73 Goals Rank Second Only to Messi’s Record Season

Kane has been open about what the season meant to him. “I’m extremely proud of the season I put up, for sure,” he told HBO Max. “Not that long ago, I was that fan wanting to become a professional footballer, and I am here now and winning awards, and the Ballon d’Or is the same.” He pointed out that his 73-goal haul was the second-highest total recorded by a player in a single season in football history, behind only Lionel Messi’s 82 goals for Barcelona in 2011-12, a comparison that sums up how rare his campaign was even against the sport’s greatest scorers.

The numbers came with silverware attached. Kane’s 73 goals helped Bayern Munich complete a Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal double last season, adding two more trophies to a collection that eluded him for a decade at Tottenham. He was careful not to get ahead of himself about the Ballon d’Or itself, pointing out that the final decision sits with the voters rather than the players being judged, even as he called it the best season of his career by some distance.

Kane’s own assessment lines up with how Bayern have talked about his season all year. The club has treated his goal tally, the two trophies and his continued World Cup form for England as evidence that the argument about his career is settled, regardless of what happens when the Ballon d’Or is handed out. For a player who spent years being measured against silverware he never won, the shortlist itself already represents a shift in how people talk about his career.

England have not produced a Ballon d’Or winner in the 25 years after Michael Owen claimed the award in 2001 on the back of his form for Liverpool. In the years between, players including Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney and Kane himself have appeared on shortlists without ever lifting the trophy. Bellingham and Rice’s places on this year’s list show English football’s individual talent has not gone missing. What has been rare is a player putting together a season strong enough to win the vote outright, and Kane’s 73 goals are the strongest case an English player has made in years.

What Happens Next

The 70th Ballon d’Or ceremony will be held on October 26 in London, the first time the event has taken place outside Paris in its history. Kane, for his part, has been careful not to get ahead of himself. He has called it “amazing” to be in contention and said he feels “extremely proud” of the season behind the nomination, while accepting the outcome is out of his hands once the voting starts.

Before boarding the team bus out of Dortmund after lifting the Supercup, Kane summed up what the season had meant to him. “I feel very privileged and also with the fans, the way they have taken to me in these few years has been really special. My aim is to repay them with some goals and some trophies.” Bayern Munich are now doing everything they can to repay Kane with one of his own. Whichever way the vote goes in October, the player who spent a decade being told he needed to leave England to win something has already built the strongest case of his career for football’s biggest individual prize.

The Tottenham Years That Shaped the Story

Kane left Tottenham for Bayern Munich in the summer of 2023 as the club’s all-time record goalscorer and England’s leading scorer too, but without a major trophy after more than a decade at the club. He reached domestic cup finals with Spurs and came away empty-handed each time, a pattern that followed him into some of the biggest arguments about his career: was he one of the best strikers of his generation, or a brilliant player who had simply never won anything that mattered on the biggest stage? The move to Germany was built around answering that question directly, and three trophies into his time at Bayern, the argument has mostly gone quiet.

England’s representation on this year’s shortlist extends beyond the men’s award too. Arsenal forward Alessia Russo and Manchester City defender Alex Greenwood are both among the 30 nominees for the women’s Ballon d’Or, while Bournemouth’s Eli Junior Kroupi and Aston Villa loanee Johan Manzambi feature on the Men’s Young Talent of the Year list. Arsenal’s David Raya is also nominated for the Men’s Goalkeeper of the Year award, alongside Aston Villa’s Emiliano Martinez.

Mikel Arteta is also among the nominees for Men’s Coach of the Year following Arsenal’s title-winning campaign, alongside Unai Emery and Vincent Kompany, giving Premier League and Bundesliga clubs a strong presence across almost every category on this year’s list, from the main men’s and women’s awards down to the coaching and goalkeeping prizes.