Олон улсын хөлбөмбөгийн холбооноос 2026 оны “Алтан бөмбөг” хүртэх 30 нэр дэвшигчийн жагсаалтыг есдүгээр сарын 8-нд албан ёсоор зарлалаа.
Өнгөрсөн оны наймдугаар сараас энэ оны долдугаар сар хүртэлх үзүүлэлтийг харгалзан үзэх уг шагналын эзнийг аравдугаар сарын 26-нд тодруулах юм. Нэр дэвшигчдийг сонгохдоо тамирчдын хувийн амжилт, багийн гаргасан амжилт болон талбай дээрх сахилга бат, шударга өрсөлдөөнийг гол шалгуур болгож байна. Жагсаалтыг тэргүүлж буй Бавари Мюнхены довтлогч Харри Кэйн 65 тоглолтод 73 гоол оруулж, 8 оновчтой дамжуулалт өгсөн үзүүлэлтээрээ хамгийн хүчтэй өрсөлдөгчөөр нэрлэгдэж байна.
Түүний араас Францын шигшээ болон Бавари Мюнхены хагас хамгаалагч Майкл Олис 53 тоглолтод 20 гоол, 32 оновчтой дамжуулалт гүйцэтгэсэн амжилтаар удаалж байна. Дэлхийн аварга шалгаруулах тэмцээний “Алтан бөмбөг” хүртсэн Родри болон Килиан Мбаппе, Эрлинг Холанд, Хвича Кварацхелия нарын шилдэг тоглогчид энэ жилийн нэр дэвшигчдийн дунд багтжээ.
Дэлхийн аварга шалгаруулах тэмцээнд 8 гоол оруулж, 4 оновчтой дамжуулалт гүйцэтгэсэн Лионель Месси нийт 46 тоглолтод 78 гоолын оролцоотойгоор жагсаалтын эхний аравт багтсан нь анхаарал татаж байна. Шүүгчдийн бүрэлдэхүүнд багтсан 100 сэтгүүлч тоглогчдын үзүүлэлтэд үндэслэн 1-10 хүртэлх оноогоор саналаа өгөх юм.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
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It’s not long now before we discover the men’s Ballon d’Or winner for 2026 — which will be awarded on October 26.
Last year it was Paris Saint-Germain’s Ousmane Dembele who lifted football’s most prestigious individual prize. Before him it was Rodri in 2024 and Lionel Messi, for an incredible eighth time, in 2023.
The list of 30 candidates for 2026, which includes those three players, was released yesterday (September 8), and can be found below. Crucially, the voting is based on player performances between last August and July. That, of course, includes a World Cup for many of them, and myriad other big games, too.
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
The 100 journalists who will send in their votes from 1-10 for the final rankings are expected to use three main criteria:
- Individual and decisive performances,
- Collective achievements and trophies won
- And class and fair play on and off the pitch.
The voting process naturally involves a level of subjectivity, and the World Cup can, at times, have an overwhelming impact on the final standings every four years.
Keeping those specific qualifiers in mind, here are The Athletic’s top 10 candidates for the award.
1. Harry Kane (Bayern Munich & England)
Harry Kane had the season of his life in 2025-26, racking up 56 goals and eight assists across the Bundesliga, Champions League and World Cup. A further 11 in other competitions for Bayern and another six for England in World Cup qualifiers and friendlies bring his total to a staggering 73 in 65 games.
Impressively, Kane showed up in the big moments too. He scored six times in five Champions League knockout games and a hat-trick in the final of the DFB-Pokal (Germany’s domestic cup). The 33-year-old followed that up with two brilliant goals to take England past DR Congo in the World Cup’s round of 32 before scoring and assisting in the next round against Mexico.
Kane’s anonymity in the semi-final against Argentina, and Bayern falling short in the Champions League after a goal-filled semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain may hurt his case. But this was one of the most dominant individual campaigns in a season where collective effort won the biggest titles. If not now, for Kane, when?
Kane and Lamine Yamal at the 2024 ceremony. Will one of them win the prize this year? (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)
2. Michael Olise (Bayern Munich & France)
Excluding penalties, no player across Europe’s top five leagues had more goals plus assists in league, Champions League and World Cup action than Michael Olise, who racked up 20 goals and a staggering 32 assists, including a record-setting seven at the World Cup (most in a single edition), in 53 matches. The 24-year-old scored five more times in nine combined qualifiers and friendlies for France, including a hat-trick against Northern Ireland.
Olise plays with freedom, intelligence and responsible abandon that is a joy to behold. He was the best or second-best player for both Bayern and France in most matches, creating chances at will from open play and set pieces while playing his part defensively and in getting his team up the pitch.
As with Kane, the lack of team success in the biggest competitions may prove a stumbling block, but Olise’s 2025-26 season saw him establish himself as one of Europe’s best attackers.
3. Rodri (Manchester City/Barcelona & Spain)
Rodri’s season was a story of two halves.
He struggled initially while making his comeback after an eight-month absence due to a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Issues with his hamstring and knee plagued him too, seeing him miss 11 of Manchester City’s first 17 Premier League matches.
From the start of 2026, though, Rodri showed signs of the player he was pre-injury, anchoring a City team that became more direct and transitional in Pep Guardiola’s final season. He was excellent in the league and Carabao Cup final wins against Arsenal in March and April, and was superb in the FA Cup final against Chelsea too, either side of a groin problem.
The World Cup, though, finally saw the 30-year-old at the peak of his powers again. Rodri controlled proceedings for a disciplined and talented Spain side who won the tournament, eventually also winning the Golden Ball — the award for the competition’s best player.
That will surely impact how the now Barcelona midfielder’s season is viewed, despite him playing only 2,185 minutes (the equivalent of just over 24 complete games) for City during it.
Rodri was a crucial part of Spain’s World Cup triumph (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
4. Kylian Mbappe (Real Madrid & France)
Kylian Mbappe enjoyed yet another spectacular World Cup, scoring 10 times to win a second successive Golden Boot at the tournament and becoming the all-time top scorer in the finals with 22 goals from 22 matches.
His achievements in a France shirt were matched by another excellent individual campaign for Real Madrid that saw him score 40 times in 42 appearances across La Liga and the Champions League. The 27-year-old was often the lone bright spark for Madrid in games amid the dysfunction around him in a season that began with Xabi Alonso as manager and ended with Alvaro Arbeloa in charge.
A second straight club season without major trophies and a fourth-place finish at the World Cup feels likely to scupper his chances of winning this year’s award despite his individual brilliance.
5. Erling Haaland (Manchester City & Norway)
Erling Haaland had his second-best season in a Manchester City shirt in 2025-26, scoring 27 times in the Premier League.
The 26-year-old took a step forward creatively too, assisting eight times, as many as he managed in the previous two seasons combined. He added eight more goals in the Champions League and three plus an assist in City’s successful FA Cup campaign to finish on 47 goal contributions in 52 club matches.
Haaland and Jude Bellingham are both contenders for the 2026 Ballon d’Or (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)
For Norway, he scored a staggering 13 times in seven matches (World Cup qualifying and friendlies), including five in an 11-1 mauling of Moldova.
That was followed by the highlight of his career at the World Cup. Haaland, along with Martin Odegaard, was the driving force behind Norway’s run to the quarter-finals. He scored seven goals from 13 shots on target across five matches, providing the clinical touch when required to take Stale Solbakken’s defensively-resolute side over the line. That meant he ended the season with 69 goal contributions for club and country.
6. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Paris Saint-Germain & Georgia)
PSG’s second consecutive Ligue 1/Champions League double was down to a comprehensive team effort rather than individual brilliance. Injuries played their part, with their defence and midfield arguably outperforming their star-studded attack at times.
Marquinhos, Willian Pacho, Nuno Mendes, Vitinha and Joao Neves were all excellent, but their stocks suffered after mixed showings at the World Cup. Ballon d’Or holder Ousmane Dembele had an excellent tournament with six goals but played under 2,000 minutes across the league and Champions League due to injuries. Fabian Ruiz, who won it with Spain, missed plenty of time with a knee issue, too.
All of that meant Georgia’s absence from the finals may be a blessing for Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s Ballon d’Or hopes.
Kvaratskhelia did not get to play in the World Cup but dazzled in the Champions League as PSG retained the trophy (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
The 25-year-old was often rotated and played only 2,623 minutes across Ligue 1 and the Champions League but still managed 18 goals and 10 assists. Those numbers do not pop out compared to the others on this list, but he delivered at crucial moments.
Kvaratskhelia scored four times and assisted twice across the Champions League’s round of 16 and quarter-finals before striking twice and assisting once in the semi-final against Bayern. He won the penalty that brought PSG level in the final against Arsenal, too.
Even in a World Cup year, his Champions League performances cannot be understated.
7. Lamine Yamal (Barcelona & Spain)
Lamine Yamal displayed more brilliance in 2025-26, taking a leap from the previous campaign.
Having recorded 14 goals and 16 assists in 48 matches across La Liga and the Champions League in 2024-25, he racked up 22 and 15 in just 38 appearances. The numbers improved but Yamal’s time on the pitch was restricted by pubalgia at the start of the season and a hamstring injury towards the end.
The effects of the latter were felt at the World Cup, where he scored just one goal — against Saudi Arabia in the group stage. The 19-year-old added an assist against France in the semi-final but did not take North America by storm as many had expected.
Staggeringly, Yamal will still be a teenager at the end of this season, which he has begun with four goals in four matches.
Yamal is a teenage World Cup winner (Buda Mendes/Getty Images)
8. Luis Diaz (Bayern Munich & Colombia)
It would be remiss to leave out the third head of Bayern’s attacking dragon in a season where Vincent Kompany’s side scored 184 times in 55 matches.
Luis Diaz’s relentless work off the ball laid the platform for Kane and Olise to enjoy their best individual seasons. The 29-year-old was no slouch either, racking up 22 goals and 17 assists in 44 games across the Bundesliga and Champions League.
The World Cup proved difficult for Diaz and Colombia, due to their inability to take their chances after an opening 3-1 win against Uzbekistan in which he scored and assisted. He also got three goals and three assists in 10 qualifying and friendly matches before the tournament.
9. Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid & England)
Jude Bellingham was England’s best player in the World Cup knockouts. He scored twice in quick succession against Mexico before adding two more — including an extra-time winner — in the quarter-final against Norway. The 23-year-old struggled in the defeat to Argentina before adding his seventh of the tournament against France in the third-place play-off.
Bellingham’s impact went beyond those goals. The positional flexibility, awareness and off-the-ball running he offered allowed Kane to drop deep and dictate play. He also did his part defensively, particularly late on in Mexico City when 10-man England needed all hands on deck.
Bellingham scored seven times at the World Cup, a record for an England player (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
At club level, though, this was a second successive disappointing campaign.
Bellingham began it with a shoulder injury, then dealt with a hamstring problem early in 2026. That contributed to a return of just eight goals and five assists in 37 matches across La Liga and the Champions League for a dysfunctional Madrid team, down from 23 and 11 in 2023-24 and then 12 and 11.
He will hope his exceptional World Cup will be fresher in voters’ minds.
10. Lionel Messi (Inter Miami & Argentina)
Is Lionel Messi still one of the world’s 10 best footballers? At 39, probably not. Was he among the 10 best across this Ballon d’Or qualifying period (August 3 to July 19)? You can certainly make an argument for it.
The World Cup, which proved Messi’s international swansong, saw him score eight goals from 18 shots on target for Argentina, while assisting four more, including both in that semi-final comeback against England. His 25 chances created were the most by a player in a single edition across the past three World Cups.
Then there are the club numbers. The final 16 games of the MLS season, including the title-deciding playoffs, saw Messi rack up a ridiculous 17 goals and 19 assists for eventual champions Inter Miami. He averaged 5.5 shots and 3.6 chances created per 90 minutes.
The first 14 matches of MLS 2026 brought 12 goals and eight assists.
Including his two goals in two Leagues Cup outings and five plus three assists in six qualifiers and friendlies for Argentina, Messi’s goal contributions for club and country in the qualifying period add up to 78 (44 goals, 34 assists) in 46 matches.
Even when considering the weakness of some of Argentina’s opponents in the United States compared to those ahead of him here, those numbers and his World Cup performance more than warrant a place on this list.
Messi has won the Ballon d’Or eight times — more than anyone. A ninth would be a glorious way to finish off a memorable year.
