Two loudest voices in 2026 Ballon d’Or race
The 70th edition of the Ballon d’Or will be staged in London for the first time on October 26, in tribute to Stanley Matthews, the winner of the very first award. Seventy years after Matthews became the inaugural winner, the football world is again asking the same question: who is going to win the coveted prize?
London is preparing for a night of football history, but there is already plenty of noise before the lights come on.
The 30-man shortlist is packed with familiar giants. Harry Kane, Erling Haaland, Lionel Messi, Jude Bellingham, Ousmane Dembele, Kylian Mbappe and Lamine Yamal are all in the conversation. But curiously, two voices have been louder than the rest in recent interviews.
Yamal and Mbappe.
And neither appears particularly interested in letting someone else make the argument for them.
At 19, Yamal has already developed the confidence of someone who knows exactly where he wants to go. After helping Barcelona retain La Liga and Spain become world champions this summer, the young winger believes his season deserves the game's biggest individual prize.
“For me, Mbappe and me, we're the two best players in the world,” Yamal said.
Then he went one step further.
He believes he deserves the Ballon d’Or because of what he has won.
It is a bold statement, but perhaps that is what makes Yamal so fascinating. He is no longer talking like a teenager happy simply to be included among football's elite. He is talking like someone who expects to belong at the very top.
Mbappé, meanwhile, has built his case on a different foundation.
Real Madrid did not win a major trophy. France's World Cup campaign ended in a semi-final defeat by Spain. Yet Mbappe's individual numbers are difficult to overlook.
He scored 25 goals in La Liga and 15 in the Champions League before taking his World Cup tally to 22, making him the tournament's all-time leading scorer. And there is a particularly interesting detail to that record: he took it from Lionel Messi, a player many consider one of the greatest ever alongside Cristiano Ronaldo.
For Mbappe, that matters.
He argues that the Ballon d’Or is an individual award and should recognise players who do extraordinary things, even when their teams do not collect the biggest trophies.
“I believe I can win it this year,” he said.
And when asked whether anyone was better than him this season, his answer was even more direct. “There was no player better than me.”
So here is the curious part.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Yamal's argument is essentially: look at what I won.
Mbappe's is: look at what I did.
Both are compelling. Both are confident. And both leave the voters with a difficult choice.
Because the shortlist is hardly short of alternatives.
Kane scored 73 goals in 65 matches for club and country and helped Bayern Munich secure a treble. Haaland scored 58 in 64 games. Messi produced 75 goal contributions in 49 matches for Inter Miami and Argentina. Dembele, last year's winner, still has a claim after Paris Saint-Germain retained the Champions League.
And yet, somehow, the conversation keeps circling back to the 19-year-old and the 27-year-old.
Maybe because this is about more than one award.
For years, Messi and Ronaldo defined football's great individual rivalry. Now, could Yamal and Mbappé be preparing to write the next chapter?
On October 26, London will provide the answer to one question: who wins the 2026 Ballon d’Or?
It may also hint at something much bigger -- whether the future of football belongs to the fearless teenager from Barcelona, the superstar from Madrid, or someone else waiting quietly to steal the spotlight.
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