France Football editor reveals narrow vote margin Harry Kane had over Kylian Mbappé in race to win Ballon d'Or
Harry Kane's winning margin over Kylian Mbappé in the 2026 Ballon d'Or vote was smaller than the 41 points separating Rodri and Vinícius Júnior in 2024, the France Football editor who runs the award revealed. Vincent Garcia told L'Équipe after Monday night's ceremony at the London Palladium that the race between the top two came down to a very, very small number of points.
France Football will publish the complete voting breakdown on Saturday. Garcia stated: "The points gap between Kane and Mbappé was smaller than the gap between Rodri and Vinícius Júnior in 2024, which was 41 points, and that was already a very narrow margin at the time.
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." Kane, 33, won the award for the first time after scoring 73 goals in 65 games for Bayern Munich and England, including 61 in 51 for Bayern. Bayern won the Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal last season.
The star striker also scored six goals at the 2026 World Cup, where England finished third. He is the first Englishman to win the Ballon d'Or since Michael Owen in 2001.
Mbappé finished second, his best result in the award, with Lamine Yamal third. The Real Madrid forward topped the scoring charts in La Liga with 25 goals, the Champions League with 15 and the World Cup with 10, where he became the tournament's all-time leading scorer with 22 strikes.
However, Real Madrid finished the season without a major trophy. What did Kylian Mbappé say about Harry Kane winning Ballon d'Or before results were officially announced?
Mbappé gave his view on Kane winning the Ballon d'Or when he arrived on the red carpet before the result was read out. Asked by L'Équipe whether Kane could win, he said: "If Kane wins the award?" Mbappé added, in comments reported by Athlon Sports: "He deserves it; he's a great player.
People came to see great players, and he's one of them." Mbappé also said he had not prepared a speech in case he won, because 'that brings bad luck'.