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Bayern Munich and England striker Harry Kane is officially the best footballer in the world after being crowned the winner of the 2026 Ballon d’Or.
The Three Lions captain is the first English player to be given the award since Michael Owen 25 years ago. He joins Kevin Keegan, Bobby Charlton and Stanley Matthews as English winners of the biggest individual accolade in men’s football.
Kane’s England teammate Jude Bellingham was voted into third place behind Rodri and Vinicius Junior two years ago, but the 33-year-old Bayern frontman’s phenomenal scoring exploits for club and country have taken him to the top of this year’s Ballon d’Or voting.
East London-born Kane joined the Tottenham Hotspur academy set-up in 2004 after brief junior spells with Arsenal and Watford. He was loaned to Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich City and Leicester City as a youngster, but made his Premier League debut for Spurs in August 2012.
Kane went on to appear in 317 Premier League matches for Spurs, many as captain, between 2012 and 2023. He left the Premier League with 213 goals to his name. Only Alan Shearer has scored more, and only Shearer, Kane and Wayne Rooney have scored more than 200 times.
He was the top goalscorer in the Premier League three times and has won the golden boot in all three of his seasons in the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich, who he joined from Spurs in search of trophies in 2023.
The trophies arrived, too. Kane is a two-time Bundesliga winner and also helped Bayern to the DFB-Pokal in 2025/26.
Since joining the Bavarian titans, the England skipper has scored an astonishing 156 goals in 158 matches in all competitions, and has scored more than a goal per game in the league.
While Kane has tasted defeat in three European finals – twice with England and once in the Champions League with Spurs, and all as captain – his performances in leading Bayern to the double and England to the World Cup final in 2026 won the appreciation of the world’s football journalists.
He is the first Bundesliga player to win the award since 1996, when legendary Borussia Dortmund midfielder Matthias Sammer saw off Shearer and Ronaldo to claim the Ballon d’Or.
The latest Bayern player to win it was Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who was crowned the world’s best player in both 1980 and 1981.
Kane is the second former Spurs player to win the award. Croatia midfielder Luka Modric won the Ballon d’Or in 2018 after taking Croatia to the World Cup final.
They played together just once for Spurs. Modric scored a penalty in a Europa League defeat to PAOK in November 2011.
The striker has come on a long way since then.
