Ballon d'Or 2026 Power Rankings: Ousmane Dembele emerges as Harry Kane's biggest rival - but Declan Rice's hopes fade after Champions League final defeat

In 2025-26: Four goals, 12 assists. Won La Liga & Supercopa de Espana.

Pedri remains one of the most masterful midfielders in the game despite having only just turned 23, with Barcelona only able to truly tick when their maestro in the middle of the park is available. That was not always the case this season, with injury issues again beginning to plague Pedri. But when he was fit, there were few better players in La Liga.

Hansi Flick's side successfully defended their domestic crown, but their Champions League hopes ended after they crashed out at the quarter-final stage to Atletico Madrid. Pedri will still be a key member of Spain's squad as they go in search of World Cup glory, but any hope he had of battling for the Ballon d'Or has all-but disappeared.

In 2025-26: 13 goals, 10 assists. Won Premier League.

Due to both form and fitness, this has not been a vintage season for Bukayo Saka. However, it still proved to be a memorable campaign for the Arsenal winger as the Gunners won the Premier League title and reached the Champions League final.

Saka's return to the fold sparked Arsenal into producing their best performance for weeks against Fulham in early May as they wrestled back control of the title race before the England international then scored the goal that booked the Gunners' place in European football's biggest game. Throw in that Saka will surely be a key starter for the Three Lions at the World Cup this summer, and his Ballon d'Or campaign might only just be getting started.

In 2025-26: 23 goals, 14 assists.

Vinicius Jr endured a miserable 2025 when it came to his performances for Real Madrid, managing just eight goals in La Liga over the course of the calendar year as his Ballon d'Or revenge tour went awry. However, as the old adage goes, form is temporary but class is permanent, and Vini showed that he can still prove to be decisive during a hot streak to kick-off 2026 that included him scoring four goals in six Champions League knockout games.

The former Flamengo talent's return to his best level wasn't enough to help bring silverware to the Bernabeu, while his abysmal record with Brazil desperately needs to improve by the time the World Cup gets going. As such, a Ballon d'Or nomination is about as much as he can hope for now.

In 2025-26: 26 goals, eight assists. Won Serie A & Coppa Italia.

Though they were embarrassingly dumped out of the Champions League by Bodo/Glimt, Inter still enjoyed a successful season, as the Nerazzuri wrapped up the Serie A title before triumphing in the Coppa Italia final. As in previous years, Lautaro Martinez was the driving force behind that success.

He finished three goals clear as the top scorer in the Italian top-flight, and Lautaro will again be part of Argentina's squad for their World Cup defence this summer. Having got the major tournament monkey off his back by starring at the 2024 Copa America, perhaps this will be the 28-year-old's time to shine on the global stage.

In 2025-26: 21 goals, eight assists. Won La Liga & Supercopa de Espana.

For some, Raphinha finishing fifth in the 2025 Ballon d'Or voting was a disgrace given the quite ridiculous attacking numbers he posted for Barcelona. They had a point, too, and it seemed that the Brazilian was keen to get himself back among the contenders after shaking off a nagging hamstring problem that stalled his progress through the opening months of the campaign.

He produced match-winning performances against Real Madrid in the final of the Supercopa de Espana and against Newcastle in the Champions League, only to suffer another injury that proved costly in terms of Barca's European hopes. He will, however, be one of the leaders for Brazil at the World Cup, with the Selecao having shown improvements under Carlo Ancelotti as the tournament nears.

In 2025-26: Three goals, 16 assists, 19 clean sheets. Won Africa Cup of Nations, Champions League, Ligue 1 & UEFA Super Cup.

The best right-back on the planet, Achraf Hakimi has enjoyed another excellent season for PSG, and returned from injury just in time to play a full part in their Champions League final triumph.

For now, he can also claim to be a champion of Africa following CAF's ruling to overturn the result of the controversial Cup of Nations final, though Senegal's appeal could yet reverse that call. Regardless, Morocco have a chance of making a deep run at the World Cup as they aim to repeat their fourth-placed finish from 2022.

In 2025-26: Four goals, five assists, 29 clean sheets. Won Premier League.

Perhaps no player encapsulates modern-day Arsenal more than Gabriel Magalhaes, with the Brazil international having emerged as one of the most dangerous set-piece weapons within the Premier League, while his physical style of defending has rarely been as in vogue within the past couple of decades as it is right now.

Though William Saliba remains as classy as ever, Gabriel can now be considered the more important of Arsenal's centre-back duo. However, his penalty miss in the Champions League final will undoubtedly count against him, even if he does have a strong World Cup with the Selecao.

In 2025-26: 12 goals, 25 assists.

With the Premier League single-season assist record having been secured, and with it both the FWA Footballer of the Year and Premier League Player of the Year trophies, Bruno Fernandes yet again proved to be the man who made Manchester United tick. If he can now enjoy a strong World Cup for Portugal, a Ballon d'Or nomination will definitely be his.

Winning the Golden Ball would be another thing altogether, though. With United not in Europe and without a trophy to show for their efforts, Fernandes would had to have enjoyed a truly remarkable campaign to get himself into the running among the main contenders. As good as he's been, he hasn't hit that level.

In 2025-26: 35 goals, six assists. Won Saudi Pro League.

Only one man, Sir Stanley Matthews, has ever won the Ballon d'Or aged 40 or above,and Cristiano Ronaldo joining that exclusive club may well seem farfetched to those whose focus remains on the European game. However, the five-time Golden Ball winner continued to bang in the goals in Saudi Arabia, and finally broke his trophy duck in the Middle East as, after a mid-season blip, Al-Nassr won the Pro League title.

Ronaldo averaged almost a goal a game for the new Saudi champions, and with FIFA having given him a reprieve so that he can play in the World Cup from the very start, he will again be leading the line for a Portugal team that will fancy their chances of going all the way after winning the UEFA Nations League last year. Should Ronaldo add international success to that he has tasted at club level, he might not be able to be denied at least a place on the podium...

In 2025-26: 36 goals, 26 assists. Won MLS Cup.

He couldn't, could he?! The days of Lionel Messi even being nominated for the Ballon d'Or were thought to be behind us, but after guiding Inter Miami to their first-ever MLS Cup and with Argentina among the favourites to win the World Cup, there is a real chance that the eight-time winner finds himself back in the running for the Golden Ball come the summer.

Messi proved to be a class apart on his way to winning a second-straight MLS MVP award as he provided six goals and seven assists in Miami's six play-off matches alone, and certainly that success at club level would be taken into account if he can help Argentina defend their global crown in North America. For all the talent around him, Messi remains at the heart of the Albiceleste's line-up, and thus any triumph in the country he now calls home will likely be attributed largely to him once more.

In 2025-26: 51 goals, 10 assists. Won FA Cup & Carabao Cup.

After an underwhelming season by his own lofty standards, Erling Haaland went into 'Terminator Mode' to begin the 2025-26 campaign, becoming a one-man battering ram for Manchester City as they aimed to re-establish themselves as challengers for the biggest prizes. A subsequent dry spell to start 2026 threatened to both ruin Haaland's Ballon d'Or chances as well as City's hopes of silverware as they crashed out of the Champions League, but they did bounce back, winning the FA Cup and Carabao Cup while pushing Arsenal all the way in the Premier League title race.

And so while Haaland failed to land the biggest trophies available to him, his candidacy has been boosted by Norway's first qualification for the World Cup since 1998, which offers their star striker the chance to appear at a major international tournament for the first time. The Scandinavians are no more than dark horses to triumph in North America, but Haaland could yet use the global stage to remind voters of what he is capable of.

In 2025-26: Six goals, 13 assists. Won Premier League.

Declan Rice announced himself as one of the world's elite midfielders with his performances against Real Madrid in last season's Champions League, and the Arsenal man has gone from strength to strength since. Rice was one of the Gunners' most important players as they claimed the Premier League title and played a big role in them reaching the Champions League final.

Rice's driving runs, defensive contributions and set-piece deliveries mean games rarely pass him by, while he is also a certain starter for a Thomas Tuchel-led England side that looks capable of ending 60 years of hurt by winning the 2026 World Cup.

In 2025-26: 28 goals, 25 assists. Won Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal & DFL-Supercup.

Liverpool fans might be forgiven for wondering whether their season might have been far more successful had Luis Diaz not been sold last summer. The versatile forward played an important role in the Reds' title triumph of 2024-25, but his desire for a new challenge led to them accepting a €75m (£65.5m/$88m) bid from Bayern Munich for the Colombia international.

Diaz hasn't looked back since, having struck up a fine understanding with Harry Kane and the rest of his Bayern team-mates. Some of his strikes in the Bundesliga this past season were stunning, while his thrilling performances in the Champions League will definitely have caught the Ballon d'Or voters' eyes, even if Bayern ultimately came up short in Europe again. When you factor in that Diaz will also be playing at his first World Cup this summer for a Colombia team who are being tipped as dark horses, he has all the makings of a Golden Ball contender.

In 2025-26: 22 goals, 10 assists. Won Champions League, Ligue 1, Trophee des Champions, UEFA Super Cup & FIFA Intercontinental Cup.

If we were to crown the outstanding player of the Champions League knockout stages, then Khvicha Kvaratskhelia would be head and shoulders above pretty much everyone else. The PSG winger became the first player in the competition's history to score or assist in seven successive knockout games, with some stunning strikes included in that number as the defending champions fought their way to another European triumph.

Kvaratskhelia's season-long form did not reached those same heights, however, while Georgia's failure to qualify for the World Cup threatens to put a ceiling on where he can finish in the final Ballon d'Or reckoning. There is still a path to at least the podium for the man they call 'Kvaradona', and he could barely have done more to get there.

In 2025-26: 48 goals, 10 assists.

Is this the year Kylian Mbappe finally gets his hands on the Ballon d'Or? Almost from the moment he emerged as a teenager at Monaco, the forward has been anointed a future Golden Ball winner. But having recently celebrated his 27th birthday, Mbappe is still waiting for his opportunity to stand atop the podium.

For much of the season, he could have done little more to give himself the best chance possible of ending that wait, as Mbappe carried a struggling Real Madrid, to the point that he picked up a knee injury that he struggled to fully recover from while Los Blancos' hopes of ending the season with a trophy gradually drifted away. Mbappe does, however, tend to save his best performances for World Cups, so expect the France captain to go the distance in the Ballon d'Or race even after his club campaign ended in disappointment.

In 2025-26: 23 goals, 33 assists. Won Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal & DFL-Supercup.

Anyone who predicted that Michael Olise would struggle to make the step up from Crystal Palace to Bayern Munich has been sorely mistaken, with the winger having strung together almost two years of fantastic performances for the Bundesliga champions. Equally capable of scoring as he is creating goals for others, the 24-year-old has grown into one of the most fearsome forward players in the German top-flight while also making his mark on the Champions League, most notably against Real Madrid in the quarter-finals, whom he ran ragged for long periods at the Bernabeu before capping the tie with a goal back in Bavaria.

Olise's club performances have also helped him lock down a starting spot in the France line-up despite intense competition for places. As such, he could be one of the stars of the upcoming World Cup for one of the favourites to lift the trophy.

In 2025-26: Seven goals, 10 assists. Won Ligue 1, Trophee des Champions, UEFA Super Cup & FIFA Intercontinental Cup.

Vitinha has come a long way from his underwhelming loan spell at Wolves five years ago to finishing on the Ballon d'Or podium in 2025, and the PSG dictator-in-chief is now regarded by many as the best midfielder on the planet. Certainly, he has played in such a fashion for much of the season, and has even added more goals and assists to his game as Luis Enrique's side have again won both Ligue 1 and the Champions League.

Vitinha was named Player of the Match in the final of the latter, and will now form part of a Portugal squad this summer that, after winning the 2025 Nations League, has a genuine belief that they can triumph at the World Cup. Should they do so, then their man in the middle will likely have played a massive part.

In 2025-26: 25 goals, 20 assists. Won La Liga & Supercopa de Espana.

The bookmakers' Ballon d'Or favourite heading into the season, Lamine Yamal is well on course to become the first player under the age of 21 to claim the award - and he wouldn't even have to win it in 2026 to do so! The Barcelona teenager's performances in the latter stages of last season's Champions League saw him emerge in the eyes of many as the finest footballer in the world, and his runners-up finish behind Dembele in the voting was testament to that.

There are those who still believe Yamal needs to produce more decisive moments in the biggest games, while there are concerns that the number of matches he has played at such a young age are leading to an increase in injury issues that ultimately brought a premature end to his campaign and are set to rule him out for the opening games of the World Cup. Yamal should be back available for Spain well before the knockouts in north America, and if he can light up another major international tournament this summer, he could yet still take home the Ballon d'Or.

In 2025-26: 19 goals, 12 assists. Won Champions League, Ligue 1, Trophee des Champions, UEFA Super Cup & FIFA Intercontinental Cup.

Injuries limited the impact Dembele was able to have on the first half of PSG's season, meaning him defending his Ballon d'Or crown looked to be off the table. However, since returning to full fitness, he has forced his way back into the reckoning by rediscovering his best form, most notably with match-winning performances against both Liverpool and Bayern Munich in the Champions League knockouts before he again found the net in the final.

Luis Enrique's side repeated their European triumph from last season, while Dembele is set to be a key member of a France team that is rounding into form ahead of the World Cup. And so, while his personal performances have not consistently hit the heights of 2024-25, Dembele is well back in contention for another Golden Ball.

In 2025-26: 65 goals, seven assists. Won Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal & DFL-Supercup.

There will always be those who don't fully appreciate Harry Kane, but now that he has got the trophy monkey off his back that so many used to beat him with over the years, the Bayern Munich striker looks like a man on a mission, utterly determined to show that he is also worthy of individual recognition as he continues to score at a remarkable rate.

As well as netting mountains of goals, Kane showcased his all-round game to devastating effect for the Bundesliga champions, and if he can maintain this form, then further silverware could be coming his way before the summer is over. England fan are praying that their captain doesn't again run out of steam at the World Cup, with Kane key to the Three Lions' hopes of ending their agonising six-decade wait for a major honour at international level.