Ballon d'Or 2026: the nominees list, when it is announced and the ceremony date
The thirty names are announced on Tuesday 8 September, the ceremony is on 26 October in London: the seventieth edition, and the first time it leaves Paris. Who is in contention, and why the host city was chosen.
The 2026 Ballon d'Or reaches the week that matters. On Tuesday 8 September, between 11:00 and 16:00 CET, France Football announce the shortlists: thirty names for the men's award and thirty for the women's. Until then, everything in circulation is guesswork.
The ceremony is held on Monday 26 October in London. It is the seventieth edition, and the first time in its history that the award leaves Paris.
Why London, and why now
The choice of city is not about logistics. The first Ballon d'Or, seventy years ago, went to an Englishman: Stanley Matthews, the Blackpool winger who won it at forty-one. Taking the seventieth edition to London is how the organisers chose to close the circle.
It is also a sign of an award on the move. For seventy years the evening was French by definition, tied to the magazine that invented it. Moving it, even once, says the Ballon d'Or has stopped treating itself as a domestic affair.
Who holds it
The reigning winner is Ousmane Dembélé, who took the 2025 award ahead of Lamine Yamal. Vitinha, Mohamed Salah and Raphinha completed the top five. The Yashin Trophy, for goalkeepers, went to Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Who is in contention
The names in widest circulation are Lamine Yamal, Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland, Harry Kane, Vinícius Júnior, Bukayo Saka and Dembélé himself.
But there is one name with a harder credential than any of the talk: Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. The Georgian was named by UEFA as the best player of the 2025/26 Champions League, a campaign he finished with 10 goals and 6 assists. That is not a fan's opinion: it is the official verdict on the heaviest competition of the season.
His obstacle is well known and none of his own doing. Georgia did not qualify for the World Cup, so Kvaratskhelia arrives in October as the only contender without a single game played over the summer. In a year when the World Cup sits on every ballot, that is an empty box the others have filled.
How the vote works
The Ballon d'Or is awarded on the season, not the calendar year: what counts is what happened between last summer and this one. For some years now the jury has not been journalists from everywhere but a restricted panel, one voter for each of the top hundred countries in the ranking, and the stated criteria are three: individual performance, trophies won, and conduct on and off the pitch.
What happens on Tuesday
Tuesday brings the names, not the order: the ranking is read out on 26 October, and until that evening nobody knows the sequence. What the lists really tell you is something else, and you see it by looking at who is not on them: every year the omission makes more noise than the nomination.
We will come back to this piece on Tuesday with the actual thirty, as soon as they are out.
In the meantime, all our match-by-match analysis is in the predictions section, the individual calls are in the Player Predictions section, and the full record of settled ones is in the results history.