{"id":1256,"date":"2026-10-26T03:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T03:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/26\/kane-primed-to-beat-yamal-mbappe-to-ballon-dor-glory\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T03:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T03:17:07","slug":"kane-primed-to-beat-yamal-mbappe-to-ballon-dor-glory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/26\/kane-primed-to-beat-yamal-mbappe-to-ballon-dor-glory\/","title":{"rendered":"Kane primed to beat Yamal, Mbappe to Ballon d\u2019Or glory"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kane<\/p>\n

England captain Harry Kane is the favourite to win a wide open race to be crowned Ballon d\u2019Or winner at a glitzy London ceremony on Monday, with Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappe also in the running to be named the world\u2019s best footballer.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/strong> 2026 Ballon d\u2019or ceremony: date, time and how to watch<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>The 70th edition of the award, established by the magazine France Football, will be hosted in England for the first time in recognition of the first winner Stanley Matthews and fittingly could have a first English winner for 25 years.<\/p>\n

Bayern Munich striker Kane struck a remarkable 73 goals in 65 games for club and country last season, leading the German giants to a league and cup double and England to the semi-finals of the World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love to be able to achieve something like that. I would be a massive milestone in my career,\u201d said the 33-year-old.<\/p>\n

But semi-final exits in both the Champions League and World Cup for Kane means the outcome is far from certain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think my wife would prefer to know and my family \u2026 it\u2019s very stressful for everyone,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can see why they don\u2019t tell people. They want everyone to go, all the big names, and there will be more people watching it if they don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I deserve it\u2019<\/h4>\n

Yamal finished second to Paris Saint-Germain\u2019s Ousmane Dembele last year and the 19-year-old Barcelona superstar seems destined to be a Ballon d\u2019Or winner one day.<\/p>\n

However, after a hamstring injury ended his club season early, he was far from the shining light of Spain\u2019s World Cup triumph that was built on being the best collective unit.<\/p>\n

Yamal was pipped to both the player and young player of the tournament by his Barcelona team-mates Rodri and Pau Cubarsi.<\/p>\n

That has not diminished his bullish confidence ahead of the ceremony.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, Mbappe and me, we\u2019re the two best players in the world,\u201d Yamal said last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly think that, as the best in the world, maybe there are two of us, and this year I would deserve it because of what I\u2019ve won.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mbappe, by contrast, boasts plenty of personal milestones without medals for either Real Madrid or France.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old was top goalscorer in La Liga, the Champions League and the World Cup without winning any of those trophies.<\/p>\n

His 10 World Cup goals made him the top goalscorer in the competition\u2019s history on 22.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing the all-time top scorer in World Cup history, overtaking all the great legends in the history of the sport in the most important tournament there is, is something that really stands out,\u201d said Mbappe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho am I voting for? Myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

One football journalist from each of the 100 top nations in FIFA\u2019s rankings is invited to cast votes for their top 10 players from a 30-man shortlist, allocating a maximum of 15 points down to one based on their ranking.<\/p>\n

The Ballon d\u2019Or goes to the player who accrued the most points.<\/p>\n

Although the award carries no cash prize, it can generate huge bonuses from clubs and commercial partners as well as increasing a player\u2019s overall marketing value.<\/p>\n

Alexia Putellas is the frontrunner to win the women\u2019s award for the third time with Aitana Bonmati\u2019s three-year reign to come to an end after an injury-hit year.<\/p>\n

Putellas, winner in 2021 and 2022, was part of the Barcelona side that regained the Champions League last season before moving to London City Lionesses.<\/p>\n

Her former club team-mate, Poland\u2019s Ewa Pajor is the main challenger to Putellas after she netted 11 Champions League goals in Barca\u2019s latest triumph.<\/p>\n

Vanguard News<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

The post Kane primed to beat Yamal, Mbappe to Ballon d\u2019Or glory<\/a> appeared first on Vanguard News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source: <\/p>\n

Vanguard News<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

England captain Harry Kane is the favourite to win a wide open race to be crowned Ballon d\u2019Or winner at a glitzy London ceremony on Monday, with Lamine Yamal and… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1257,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}