Thomas Müller has picked Michael Olise and Kylian Mbappé as the two players he most wants to see win the 2026 Ballon d’Or.
“For me, there are two candidates whose individual performances have impressed me the most, and they are Michael Olise and his brilliant partner at the World Cup, Kylian Mbappé,” the 37-year-old wrote in his monthly newsletter.
“The two combine spectacular play with a real goal threat. In the finer details, they manage to be efficient with their finesse and power while making the whole thing look incredibly effortless. To me, that’s the kind of material you need to be the world’s best footballer. You simply need that touch of magic.”
Olise, 24, joined Bayern Munich in 2024 and overlapped with Müller for one season at the Allianz Arena before Müller moved to Vancouver in 2025.
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A record-breaker and a two-time Golden Boot
Mbappé and Olise ran the France attack at the summer’s World Cup in North America, and both left with individual honours worth citing.
Mbappé won the Golden Boot with 10 goals, becoming the first player to top-score at two World Cups after already claiming the prize in Qatar four years earlier. Olise broke Pelé’s record for assists at a single tournament, ending with seven after Pelé’s six at the 1970 edition had stood for more than 50 years.
France were knocked out by eventual champions Spain in the semi-finals.
Former France striker Thierry Henry also praised Olise.
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“The way he sees stuff is just not the same as [the way] others see stuff,” Henry said of the Bayern winger.
“This guy is on another planet.”
Kane left out despite a 73-goal season
The clearest absence from the two-man list is Harry Kane. Kane scored 73 times for Bayern and England in 2025-26, the second-highest single-season total of the century behind Lionel Messi’s 82 in 2011-12. He took the Bundesliga top-scorer trophy for a third straight year and picked up his second European Golden Shoe, finishing nine goals ahead of Erling Haaland.
Lamine Yamal, part of Spain’s World Cup-winning squad and still in the bookmakers’ top bracket, was also left out of Müller’s cut.
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The ceremony is held at the London Palladium on Monday 26 October, the first time the award has moved out of Paris in its 70-year history.
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