Kylian Mbappé was closer to winning the 2026 Ballon d’Or than the final result suggested. For much of the counting period, the Real Madrid forward led the vote.

France Football editor-in-chief Vincent Garcia set out the behind-the-scenes picture a day after Monday night’s ceremony in London, where Harry Kane became the first English winner of the award since Michael Owen in 2001.

“Kylian led the race for a long time, but Harry Kane came back into contention, and in the end it was decided by a very, very small number of points,” Garcia told L’Équipe.

The gap, Garcia added, was smaller than the one that separated Rodri from Vinícius Júnior in 2024, a vote decided by 41 points.

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A late swing settled it

Garcia said he followed the jury’s returns in real time through the month of voting. Mbappé’s advantage held through most of that window before Kane began to close it, and then moved clear in the final run of ballots.

Kane’s season gave him the material to catch up. The Bayern Munich striker scored 73 goals for club and country across 2025/26, added domestic trophies in Germany, and led England to the World Cup semi-finals. Mbappé delivered 42 goals in 44 games for Real Madrid, took the Golden Boot with 10 goals at the World Cup, but did not match Kane’s silverware.

Garcia’s own vote went elsewhere

Garcia also acknowledged that his personal ballot had gone to a player who did not win, declining to name the recipient until France Football publishes the full voting breakdown.

Jury members are asked to keep their individual choices private until the magazine is out, a rule Garcia said applied to him too.

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Kane is only the fifth Englishman to win the award, after Stanley Matthews, Bobby Charlton, Kevin Keegan and Owen. The 33-year-old collected the trophy on the Palladium Theatre stage in London, with Mbappé second and Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal third. The complete voting breakdown is set to appear in France Football’s print edition.

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