The race for the Ballon d'Or officially ended on Monday, but tonight we finally have a clearer picture of just how close it really was. And it turned out to be one of the most dramatic contests in the history of this prestigious football award, as Harry Kane edged out Kylian Mbappe by just 28 points!France Football, the French magazine behind the Ballon d'Or, revealed the detailed results of this year's voting on Friday, showing just how narrow the margin between the two contenders was.🌕✨ The gap between Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappé for the Ballon d’Or was 28 points. 1027 Mbappé. 1055 Harry Kane. 👑🏴 https://t.co/FHndor7CRJ— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) October 30, 2026 Kane received the award on home soil, at a glittering ceremony held in London, becoming the first Englishman to lift the prestigious trophy since Michael Owen in 2001 and the first Bayern Munich player to be crowned the world's best since Karl-Heinz Rummenigge in 1981.It was the perfect way to cap off an extraordinary season in which the English striker scored an astonishing 73 goals for club and country. His remarkable performances earned him 1,055 points from the voting journalists.His main rival, Mbappe, collected 1,027 points, making this the second-closest Ballon d'Or race of the modern era, or more precisely, since 2016, when the current voting system was introduced.Victor Wanyama's message to Harry Kane after winning Ballon d’OrThe only tighter contest came in 2019, when Lionel Messi edged out runner-up Virgil van Dijk by a mere seven points to claim his sixth of eight Ballon d'Or awards.Far behind the leading duo, Lamine Yamal finished third with 881 points. The Spanish wonderkid had been expected to emerge as Kane's biggest challenger this year, but four journalists did not even include him in their top 10 players of the season…His international teammate Rodri, with whom he won the 2026 World Cup for Spain, finished fourth with 726 points, while Inter Miami captain Lionel Messi took fifth place with 612.15.30: (2.05) Chelsea (3.90) Manchester United (3.20)The top 10 also featured Khvicha Kvaratskhelia with 541 points, Ousmane Dembele with 418, Erling Haaland with 378 and Michael Olise with 296, while Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Fabian Ruiz completed the list with 201 points.The detailed results reveal just how decisive the distribution of first-place votes across different countries proved to be in determining the outcome of this closely fought battle.Unsurprisingly, given the final result, Harry Kane received the most first-place votes, with journalists from as many as 40 countries putting him at the top of their lists, while Kylian Mbappe was the preferred choice of 23 journalists.He is the one: Kane wins Ballon d'Or!Yamal topped the ballots in 13 countries, while Kvaratskhelia, who played a crucial role in Paris Saint-Germain's successful Champions League campaign, received maximum points from Greece and – Georgia.As a reminder, the Ballon d'Or winner is selected by an international jury of 100 specialist journalists, with each of the top 100 countries in the FIFA rankings represented by one journalist.The assessment period for performances at club and international level ran from August 3, 2025, to July 19, 2026.16.00: (5.60) Levante (4.90) Atletico Madrid (1.50)Under the voting system, each journalist ranks 10 players, awarding 15 points to their first choice, 12 to second place, 10 to third, followed by 8, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 point for the remaining positions.In the event of a tie on total points, players are separated by the number of first-place votes received, followed by second-place votes, third-place votes, and so on.
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