England’s Harry Kane wins Ballon d’Or, Alexia Putellas takes women’s award

The Bayern Munich striker becomes the archetypal Englishman to triumph the prestigious grant successful 25 years, aft Michael Owen won it successful 2001.

Harry Kane has completed ‌his agelong quest for football’s highest idiosyncratic honour, with the Bayern Munich and England striker winning the Ballon ⁠d’Or aft a record-breaking play ⁠that cemented his presumption arsenic 1 of the game’s top goalscorers.

Kane is the archetypal Englishman to triumph the prestigious grant successful 25 years, aft Michael Owen won it successful 2001.

“Wow, wow, wow!” Kane said aft taking ⁠the signifier connected Monday. “I americium astir speechless. Being present successful London has made it other special. Made it a bully omen for maine tonight. Thank you to everyone who voted for me. I tin ideate it was pugnacious this year.

“Some world-class players successful the country tonight. Congratulations ⁠to each the winners and nominees tonight, and awesome showing determination and hard enactment tin truly achieve.”

Spain midfielder Alexia Putellas won the Ballon d’Or Feminin for the 3rd time.

Kane’s determination to Bayern successful 2023 brought the squad trophies that had agelong eluded him. In 2025-26, helium coupled that occurrence with goalscoring numbers that made him the starring Ballon d’Or candidate.

The England skipper produced the astir prolific run of his life, scoring ‌61 goals successful 51 games for Bayern crossed each competitions arsenic the German giants completed a home league and cupful double.

By the extremity of the season, Kane had established himself arsenic Europe’s starring goalscorer, turning each contention into a showcase of his finishing ability.

His power stretched acold beyond nine football. As England embarked connected different effort to extremity decades of wounded astatine the World Cup, Kane erstwhile again emerged arsenic the team’s driving force.

He scored six goals during the tourney and led England to the semifinals, combining his objective finishing with the enactment and composure that person defined his planetary career.

In galore ways, the grant represents the culmination ⁠of a singular journey. Few players person experienced a vocation arc rather similar Kane’s.

Once struggling to ⁠establish himself astatine Tottenham Hotspur arsenic a youngster, being sent retired connected galore loans, helium developed into 1 of the astir implicit centre forwards of his generation, susceptible of scoring each benignant of extremity portion besides functioning arsenic a playmaker.

The Ballon d’Or has often rewarded players whose occurrence was built connected flair and spectacle, ⁠but Kane’s triumph is simply a tribute to consistency, quality and productivity connected an exceptional scale.

His ⁠numbers were astir intolerable to ignore.

Kane finished the run with 73 goals for nine ⁠and country, a full seldom seen successful the modern era. More importantly, those goals arrived successful moments of genuine significance, helping Bayern cod trophies and driving England heavy into the biggest tourney successful the sport.

The contention for this year’s grant was fierce. Kylian Mbappe broke World Cup scoring records. Lamine Yamal helped Spain to World Cup ‌glory. Yet voters yet chose Kane, whose excellence lasted the full season.

At 33, Kane has yet claimed the game’s highest idiosyncratic honour, adding a Ballon d’Or to a bequest that already places him among football’s top strikers arsenic England’s all-time starring marksman and their grounds ‌World ‌Cup scorer.

Putellas was presented with the women’s grant aft winning the treble with Barcelona successful the 2025-26 campaign, successful summation to the Spanish Super Cup. She moved to Women’s Super League broadside London City Lionesses successful July, aft 14 years astatine Barca.