Хөлбөмбөгийн ертөнцийн нэр хүндтэй шагналын 30 хүний бүрэлдэхүүнтэй нэр дэвшигчдийн жагсаалт есдүгээр сарын 8-нд албан ёсоор зарлагдлаа.
Энэ жилийн “Баллон д’Ор” шагналын төлөөх өрсөлдөөнд Аваргуудын лиг болон Дэлхийн аварга шалгаруулах тэмцээний амжилт голлон нөлөөлөх хандлагатай байна. Нэр дэвшигчдийн дунд ПСЖ-ийн Хвича Кварацхелия, Барселонагийн Ламин Ямал, Бавари Мюнхений Майкл Олисе болон Харри Кэйн, Реал Мадридын Килиан Мбаппе, Барселонагийн Родри нар онцгойрч байна. Хвича Кварацхелия сүүлийн хоёр улиралд ПСЖ-ийн бүрэлдэхүүнд Аваргуудын лигт дараалан түрүүлж, шийдвэрлэх шатуудад чухал гоол оруулсан амжилттай байгаа бол Ламин Ямал 19 нас хүрэхээсээ өмнө Дэлхийн аварга болж, Ла лигт шилдэг тоглогчоор шалгарсан юм.
Майкл Олисе Бавари Мюнхенд 52 тоглолтод 22 гоол, 31 оновчтой дамжуулалт гүйцэтгэж, Реал Мадридыг Аваргуудын лигээс хасахад гол үүрэг гүйцэтгэсэн бол Килиан Мбаппе бүх тэмцээнийг оролцуулан 58 гоолын амжилт үзүүлжээ. Мөн Дэлхийн аваргад шилдэг тоглогчоор шалгарсан Родри болон улирлын турш 61 гоол оруулсан Харри Кэйн нарын амжилт нь тэднийг энэхүү нэр хүндтэй шагналын хүчтэй өрсөлдөгч болгож байна. Олон улсын хэмжээнд гаргасан амжилт болон хувийн үзүүлэлтүүдээс хамааран эдгээр тоглогчдын хэн нь ялагч болохыг аравдугаар сарын 26-нд тодруулах юм.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
Should the Ballon d’Or go to a Champions League winner?
Or a World Cup winner?
Maybe winning the biggest trophies doesn’t matter, and perhaps a striker who has reached new levels at the age of 33 and mastered two positions at once could be taking home the award on Monday, October 26.
Or one of France’s outrageous front line who lit up the World Cup before falling at the semi-final stage to the eventual winners Spain.
With the 30-man shortlist announced on Tuesday, we asked six of our writers to pick who they think should win this year’s award…
OUR 2026 MEN’S BALLON D’OR NOMINEES!
🏴 Jude Bellingham
🇪🇸 Pau Cubarsí
🇪🇸 Marc Cucurella
🇫🇷 Ousmane Dembélé
🇨🇴 Luis Díaz
🇵🇹 Bruno Fernandes
🇧🇷 Gabriel
🇳🇴 Erling Haaland
🇲🇦 Achraf Hakimi
🏴 Harry Kane
🇬🇪 Khvitcha Kvaratskhelia
🇪🇸 Lamine Yamal
🇸🇳 Sadio Mané
🇧🇷 Marquinhos
🇦🇷…— Ballon d’Or (@ballondor) September 8, 2026
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (PSG and Georgia)
As a kid looking through the almanacks of past Ballon d’Or winners, I remember running my finger down the list and stopping at players from the Warsaw Pact countries. Josef Masopust, Lev Yashin, Florian Albert, Oleg Blokhin and Igor Belanov. There was an air of mystery to them. Outlier energy.
No one from Eastern Europe and the Caucasus has won this award since Andriy Shevchenko in 2004. I’d love Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to get his hands on it. Kvaratskhelia is that rare thing in modern football. A genuine bolt from the blue.
I remember watching his debut for Napoli at the Bentegodi and thinking: Where did this guy come from? Wait? Dinamo Batumi? That day in Verona, Kvaratskhelia scored and assisted against Hellas Verona. The following weekend he scored two against Monza. You knew instantly it was the start of something special.
By the end of the season, Napoli were champions for the first time in 33 years. Since moving to PSG in January 2025, they have won the Champions League back-to-back. Kvara’s role in each of these historic achievements is no coincidence. The guy who came out of nowhere wins where no one else usually does.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia has been instrumental to PSG’s domination of Europe (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)
OK, his numbers last season perhaps pale in comparison with those of Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane: just the 33 goals and assists in all competitions. But his impact in the knockout stages of the Champions League was, once again, breathtaking. It was his goal that made the difference in the play-off against Monaco. He then torched Chelsea and was man of the match in the game of the season: the semi-final first leg against Bayern Munich, a 5-4 classic.
As a Georgian, Kvaratskhelia does not have the profile or celebrity of some of the other players on the shortlists. For instance, he does not have Real Madrid and Jose Mourinho lobbying for him every week as Mbappe does. Consider this the start of the Kvara campaign.
James Horncastle
Lamine Yamal (Barcelona and Spain)
Before this summer, only Pele, Giuseppe Bergomi and Kylian Mbappe had appeared in a men’s World Cup final as teenagers and finished it as champions. Six days after turning 19, Lamine Yamal joined them.
Yamal scored 16 goals and supplied 12 assists in La Liga as Barcelona retained the title, earning the competition’s player of the season award. He added another six goals in the Champions League, and before turning 19, he had scored 11 times in the competition — more than any player in its history at that age.
At the World Cup, Yamal completed a tournament high of 35 successful dribbles, and his eight appearances also set a new record, alongside Pau Cubarsi, for the most World Cup matches played before turning 20.
Lamine Yamal, World Cup winner. Will the Ballon d’Or be next? (Alex Pantling – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
Last year, Yamal finished second to Ousmane Dembele in the Ballon d’Or vote, receiving 1,059 points to the Frenchman’s 1,380, while only 18. He became the first player to win the Kopa Trophy twice (which is given to the best young player), and 12 months on, the case is stronger and his medal collection heavier.
Amelie Claydon
Michael Olise (Bayern Munich and France)
For a player who was lining up for Reading in the Championship just five years ago, Michael Olise has had an incredible career trajectory.
Following an outstanding second season at Bayern Munich and his standout performances at the World Cup with France, he must surely be a strong contender for this year’s Ballon D’Or.
At Bayern, Olise scored 22 goals and made 31 assists in 52 appearances for Vincent Kompany’s side. That included a sublime late winner in the Champions League quarter-final second leg to knock Real Madrid out of the competition.
Olise, who was released by both Chelsea and Manchester City as a boy, carried his club form into the summer World Cup, playing behind Kylian Mbappe in a fearsome French attacking quartet.
During the tournament, Olise was exceptional, registering seven assists, as France scored 16 goals en route to the semi-final, where they came unstuck against an excellent Spain side.
Michael Olise has gone from Championship wonderkid to Champions League star (Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Olise, one of football’s more enigmatic figures who does not have an official brand or boot sponsorship deal, has become one of the most exciting players to watch in world football, with the way he effortlessly glides across the pitch.
“This guy is on another planet; he is just different,” former France striker Thierry Henry said on FOX Sports during the World Cup. “MVP (most valuable player) will always be Kylian, because he will put numbers that nobody can do, but the most important player is Michael Olise.”
Tom Burrows
Kylian Mbappe (Real Madrid and France)
After everything Kylian Mbappe has packed into his career, it can feel like a trick of the imagination that he hasn’t already added a Ballon d’Or to his collection.
This year, I suspect it might be just beyond him, too. Real Madrid did not have a vintage season, despite him accumulating 42 goals. France were heralded as the most thrilling team of the World Cup but fell to Spain at the semi-final. And, yes, Harry Kane is the most likely winner after his annual goals bonanza for Bayern Munich and England.
I’m also aware that there is nothing in the rules to stipulate that extra points should be available for having the X factor. But I’m still drawn in by Mbappe’s portfolio of 58 goals for club and country. Which player put together a greater showreel in the World Cup? Whose goals will live longer in the memory?
Kylian Mbappe has scored a record 22 goals at the World Cup (Buda Mendes/Getty Images)
Call me old-fashioned, but I want the Ballon d’Or to go to the most consistently thrilling player, the guy you can’t take your eyes off. The showman. Lionel Messi used to be that player. Cristiano Ronaldo, too.
Kane might win the numbers game and — surprise — Bayern might have bagged their umpteenth Bundesliga title in a row. But it is the presence of Mbappe, more than anybody else, that would make me quicken my step outside a football stadium and that shouldn’t be underestimated now that the Messi-Ronaldo dominance of this award is no more.
Daniel Taylor
Rodri (Barcelona and Spain)
Rodri has already won it all for club and country, but if he were to receive a second Ballon d’Or it couldn’t be argued that he wasn’t a worthy winner.
City may have fallen short of landing him a fifth Premier League title, but for his national team it has been total domination as they completed the European and World Cup double in the United States, Canada and Mexico this summer. Rodri won the Golden Ball for the tournament’s best player and moved to Barcelona later in the summer.
Spain were by far and away the best team in the tournament, despite the opening 0-0 draw against Cape Verde, and didn’t concede a goal until the semi-final against Belgium.
Will Rodri’s World Cup win with Spain increase his Ballon d’Or chances? (Franck Fife / AFP via Getty Images)
Not only did Rodri anchor that midfield, but his passing ability unleashed Spain’s abundance of attacking talents. In short, he was the battery that made the machine work and was rightfully acknowledged as the tournament’s most important player.
Rob Tanner
Harry Kane (Bayern Munich and England)
We do not need to over-complicate what should be a simple award: Harry Kane has been, by some distance, the best footballer anywhere in the world over the last year.
Even if you had never had the privilege of watching Kane play, you could tell this from the numbers alone. Kane walked to his second ‘European Golden Shoe’, scoring 36 Bundesliga goals, way ahead of Erling Haaland, who got 27 in the Premier League for Manchester City. Across all competitions, Kane got 61 for Bayern last year — almost 40 per cent better than his previous best of 44.
Throw in Kane’s record for England, and he scored another 12, six of them at the World Cup, matching his haul from the 2018 edition in Russia, when he won the Golden Boot. He is the most consistent and productive goalscorer in the world.
And yet while the numbers alone are enough to justify the Ballon d’Or, they still only tell part of the story. Because to watch Kane right now, in the year he turned 33, is to feel in the presence of mastery. He continues to add layers to his game, marrying his unique football brain with technical ingenuity. He is not just the world’s best No 9 but probably the world’s best No 10 too.
No one else in the running can make a claim like that.
Jack Pitt-Brooke
