- Harry Kane won the 2026 Ballon d'Or, the first English winner since Michael Owen in 2001 and England's sixth.
- France and Argentina have won it most, 8 times each. Portugal, Germany and the Netherlands have 7.
- Lionel Messi has 8 of Argentina's 8. Cristiano Ronaldo has 5 of Portugal's 7.
- Twenty nations have produced a winner; ten of them only once.
Harry Kane won the 2026 Ballon d'Or at the London Palladium on 26 October, the first time the ceremony has been held outside France. The Bayern Munich and England captain scored 73 goals in 2025/26, 61 for his club and 12 for his country. He's the first English winner since Michael Owen in 2001, and the sixth from England since Stanley Matthews won the first Ballon d'Or in 1956.
Every Ballon d'Or, by nation
The race below adds up every men's Ballon d'Or from 1956 to 2026 by the winner's nation. There was no award in 2020. Germany includes West Germany, and Alfredo Di Stéfano's two wins count for Spain, as they do on the official list.
England led on its own after Kevin Keegan's two wins in 1978 and 1979. The Netherlands took over in the late 1980s, thanks to Johan Cruyff and Marco van Basten, with three wins each. France's total was built on Michel Platini's three in a row from 1983 to 1985, and Argentina's comes almost entirely from Lionel Messi, who won all eight of its titles between 2009 and 2023.
The players who've won it most
Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo won 13 of the 15 awards between 2008 and 2023. Kane's is his first, at 33.
Sources and method
Counts the men's Ballon d'Or by the winner's nationality as given on the official list. Germany includes West Germany; the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic are counted separately. No award was made in 2020.