Mauricio Pochettino is not neutral on this one. Speaking about the 2026 Ballon d’Or shortlist that will be settled at the London Palladium on 26 October, the United States men’s head coach put his old Tottenham striker at the top of a field led by defending winner Ousmane Dembélé, Kylian Mbappé, Lamine Yamal and Vinícius Júnior.
“My wish, I hope yes. I think he deserves it as the reward for his career and for all what he has done in football,” Pochettino told PA Sport.
The Argentine, who took charge of Kane during his Spurs years, added a caveat that is very much the debate around this year’s ballot.
“I don’t know if he is going to be punished for the World Cup or the Champions League because he played in both semi-finals. Maybe he will be punished, I don’t know, but, for me, it’s Harry Kane’s time.”
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A 61-goal case built in Munich
The numbers behind the endorsement are hard to dismiss. Kane finished the 2025-26 campaign with 61 goals across 51 club appearances, taking Bayern Munich to a domestic double: the Bundesliga, sealed on 19 April with a 4-2 home win over VfB Stuttgart, and the DFB-Pokal, in which Kane scored a second-half hat-trick in a 3-0 final win over the same opponent in Berlin on 23 May.
In the Bundesliga alone he scored 36 goals to win the top scorer award for a third consecutive season. The Franz Beckenbauer Supercup had already been added to the cabinet at the start of the campaign.
Bayern’s Champions League ended at the semi-final stage. So did England’s World Cup, where Kane scored six goals as captain before his side went on to claim a first-ever third place at the tournament.
The Modrić-Cannavaro-Benzema template
Pochettino’s pitch leaned on a category the France Football voters have historically been willing to acknowledge: the career reward.
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“It’s not clear today who is the number one in the world who should win. In the past, it was more clear,” he said. “I think he deserves it. He deserves it in his career like (Luka) Modrić or (Fabio) Cannavaro, (Karim) Benzema. I think if I pick one, then it’s Harry Kane.”
The Cannavaro comparison in particular is a reminder that the award has, at times, tilted toward a defining season on the biggest stage rather than a strict statistical winner. Kane’s 2025-26 combines both, and Pochettino, who watched him develop from an academy prospect into a Premier League Golden Boot winner, is arguing it should count.
The rest of the field
Kane will not have a clear run. The 30-man shortlist for the 70th edition of the award includes Mbappé, Yamal, Vinícius Júnior, Rodri, Michael Olise and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, and PSG’s Champions League run has put nine of their players on the list, headed by Dembélé.
The winner will be announced by France Football at the London Palladium on Monday, 26 October.
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