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

Rodri

Manchester City & Spain

The main factors behind Rodri’s 2024 Ballon d’Or win were his status as the most influential player for both club and country, as Manchester City secured a fourth consecutive Premier League title and Spain clinched a record-breaking fourth European Championship. With both teams once again in contention for top honours this season, the all-encompassing defensive midfielder could well find himself back in the conversation for the world’s best player.

The only things holding him back at present are City’s dip in form – they look a weakened version of themselves this season, with question marks over whether they can go all the way in the Champions League and Premier League – and Rodri’s own recovery. Still regaining his sharpness after spending much of last season sidelined with an ACL injury, he has yet to fully rediscover his pomp, though you wouldn’t put it past him to somehow come back even stronger.

9

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 much better under Xabi Alonso already, having won their first six games across all competitions – he may very well be the front-runner in 12 months’ time, though his biggest adversaries will be playing for the same team.

8

Mohamed Salah

Liverpool & Egypt

A total of 56 goal contributions in 51 games across all competitions in 24/25 is, quite simply, a remarkable return that typifies Mohamed Salah‘s impact at Liverpool ever since he made the move to Anfield. Despite the fact he is approaching the latter stages of his career, and that he is having to work with a new manager for the first time since arriving on Merseyside, the Egyptian King remains one of the Premier League’s very best players.

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In fact, he seems to be getting even better with age. History has shown that statistical data is becoming all the more important when dictating who wins individual awards. As a result, Salah is certainly a strong contender for the 2026 Ballon d’Or award – especially since Liverpool are among the favourites for every competition they are in this term. With six goal contributions in 10 games while not playing at his best, the 33-year-old may explode into life once those around him – Alexander Isak, to name just the one – also find some form.

7

Jude Bellingham

Real Madrid & England

After leading Real Madrid to glory in La Liga and the Champions League – boasting an outrageous 23-goal haul from midfield in his debut season, as well as helping England reach the final of Euro 2024 – Jude Bellingham is far and away the most talented Englishman to have burst onto the scene over the last 10 or so years, though a list of injuries have dampened his ability to reach the next level.

Such is how mind-boggling his attacking output is from midfield, the 22-year-old should have no issue being the centre of attention again this season – and that’s even with Kylian Mbappe (more on him later!) leading the line for Los Blancos. And now that he’s had his shoulder surgery, he’s well-equipped to more than play his part in a Champions League and World Cup onslaught for club and country.

6

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 them, have seemed a little underwhelming – that’s even though he still claimed the Premier League Golden Boot in one of his next two campaigns. 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 in his last two fixtures to notch three goals 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.

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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The likes of Kylian Mbappe, Jadon Sancho and Jude Bellingham all feature.

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 is only bound to improve seeing as he’s still only 22.

4

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 that Dembele is the crown jewel in. Retaining the Ballon d’Or will be extremely difficult, but write him off at your peril.

3

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 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 ten games of the 2025/26 season, he has already found the back of the net 18 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.

2

Lamine Yamal

Barcelona & Spain

There has never been a teenage winner of the Ballon d’Or before, and the fact of the matter is, 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.

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 14 goals in ten 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 05/10/2025