Olise’s ninth place was one of the most argued-over lines on the Ballon d’Or sheet, and Matthäus has used his column for Sky Germany to answer the question fans had been chewing on since the ceremony at the London Palladium: was the Frenchman wronged?
His answer is no.
“Olise finishing ninth is fair enough. You have to look at the names ahead of him: Rodri, Ousmane Dembélé and Erling Haaland,” Matthäus wrote, as reported by Bulinews.
Rodri finished fourth, Dembélé seventh and Haaland eighth in the men’s top 10, with Lionel Messi fifth and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia sixth.
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A season that still deserved more credit
The ninth-place debate makes more sense once you put Olise’s season numbers next to it. The winger finished the 2025-26 campaign with 25 goals and 28 assists in 57 games for Bayern, and his 15 goals and 19 assists in the Bundesliga made him the first player since 2019/20 to post at least 15 of each in a single league season.
Bayern themselves recognised it, naming him Player of the Season for 2025/26. The Bundesliga vote fell the same way.
Matthäus backs Kane as the right winner
Matthäus reserved his strongest praise for the winner.
“I believe Harry Kane is the player who deserved the Ballon d’Or the most. This trophy is recognition for a player who has performed consistently throughout an entire season, entertained the fans and served as a role model,” he told Sky Germany.
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The Germany great also backed the Mbappé-over-Yamal order at second and third, according to Yahoo Sports, arguing that the Real Madrid forward delivered more over the full campaign while Yamal lost a chunk of the season to injury and scored only one goal at the World Cup. He also felt Jude Bellingham deserved a place inside the top 10.
Kane finished with 73 goals for club and country across the season, became the first English Ballon d’Or winner since Michael Owen in 2001 and collected the Gerd Müller Trophy for top scorer on the same night at the 70th-anniversary ceremony in London.
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