Harry Kane has ended England’s 25-year wait for a Ballon d’Or winner, becoming the fifth Englishman to take football’s grandest individual prize after a remarkable season with Bayern Munich. In a BBC Sport ranking of England’s five recipients, Kane, listed as the 2026 winner with Bayern, is placed third, behind Bobby Charlton and Kevin Keegan, with Stanley Matthews fourth and Michael Owen fifth.
The ranking comes with context about the award’s history. The Ballon d’Or began in 1956 as the European Footballer of the Year, was open only to European players until 1995, and only became a truly global prize in 2007. England have had near-misses too: Billy Wright, Bobby Moore, Gary Lineker, David Beckham and Frank Lampard all finished as runners-up, while Lucy Bronze in 2019 and Beth Mead in 2022 also came second.
Kane’s case is built on output. Across the 2025-26 season and this summer’s World Cup, the evaluation period for the award, he scored 61 goals in 51 games for Bayern in all competitions, winning a German league and cup double and becoming the fastest player to reach 100 Bundesliga goals. He also scored 12 times for England, six of them during the run to the World Cup semi-finals. The ranking notes the counter-argument that he plays for a dominant Bayern side, but points to his passing range and hold-up play as evidence that the 33-year-old has redefined the centre-forward role.
Michael Owen, fifth on the list, won in 2001 at 22, with only Brazil’s Ronaldo having won at a younger age. His year included Liverpool’s treble, a two-goal late comeback in the FA Cup final against Arsenal, two assists in the 5-4 UEFA Cup final win over Alaves and a famous England hat-trick against Germany in Munich. He finished the season as Liverpool’s top scorer with 24 goals in all competitions.
Stanley Matthews, fourth, was the inaugural winner in 1956 and remains the oldest recipient. Two months shy of his 42nd birthday, the Blackpool winger was named first by six of 16 voters and appeared on 12 ballots, beating Alfredo Di Stefano and Raymond Kopa. Blackpool finished second in the English top flight behind Manchester United’s Busby Babes, while voters were likely influenced by Matthews’ performance in the FA Cup final three years earlier, when Blackpool beat Bolton 4-3 in the ‘Matthews Final’. Known as ‘The Wizard of the Dribble’, he was described by Ballon d’Or founder Gabriel Hanot as football’s Charlie Chaplin, and he played on for another nine years after his award, retiring at 50.
Bobby Charlton is second. The Munich Air Disaster survivor was central to England’s 1966 World Cup triumph on home soil, scoring twice in the semi-final against Portugal and then facing Franz Beckenbauer in the final as England beat West Germany 4-2 after extra time. Charlton had scored 16 top-flight goals from midfield for Manchester United that season and was the player Alf Ramsey built his team around. Eusebio finished second in the Ballon d’Or voting that year and Beckenbauer third.
Kevin Keegan tops the ranking after winning back-to-back awards in 1978 and 1979 with Hamburg. He had been runner-up in 1977 to Allan Simonsen after Liverpool won the European Cup and First Division, then joined Hamburg and helped them to a first Bundesliga title. In 1978 he appeared on 22 of 26 ballots and was ranked top by nine voters, finishing above Hans Krankl; in 1979 he was named top by 18 of 26 voters. Hamburg lost the European Cup final to Nottingham Forest at the Bernabeu in his last game before joining Southampton. Keegan remains the only British player to have won two Ballon d’Or awards, and at the time only Johan Cruyff had matched his back-to-back feat.