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When and where to watch the Ballon d’Or 2026
The ceremony is scheduled for 8 p.m. BST, which is 3 p.m. Eastern Time, and DAZN will broadcast it live and free to fans in 200 markets, although the rights are not exclusive to DAZN in Turkey and Andorra, according to GOAL. Streaming is also available on ballondor.com, according to ESPN, and DAZN’s French page says L’Équipe carries it in France.
Every award and how many nominees it has
The ceremony presents awards in the following categories, with the shortlists announced on 8 September.
– Men’s Ballon d’Or: 30 players, with 10 from Paris Saint-Germain, four each from Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, and Kane, Yamal, Mbappé and Rodri among the leading names
– Women’s Ballon d’Or: 30 players from 18 nationalities, with eight from Barcelona and Aitana Bonmatí absent after injury.
– Men’s Kopa Trophy for the best young player: 10 nominees, including two-time winner Lamine Yamal.
– Women’s Kopa Trophy: five nominees, led by the reigning winner Vicky López.
– Men’s Yashin Trophy for the best goalkeeper: 10 nominees, with 2025 winner Gianluigi Donnarumma not among them.|
– Women’s Yashin Trophy: five nominees, including the reigning winner Hannah Hampton.
– Men’s Coach of the Year: five nominees, four of them Spanish.
– Women’s Coach of the Year: five nominees, including Sadiku as the only woman.
– Men’s Club of the Year: Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Bodø/Glimt, Flamengo and PSG.
– Women’s Club of the Year: Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Club América, Manchester City and OL Lyonnes.
– Gerd Müller Trophy: the men’s and women’s top scorers, which have no shortlist.
– Sócrates Award: for humanitarian work, presented by L’Équipe and Peace and Sport.
The men’s and women’s coach awards are the Johan Cruyff Trophy, according to Sports Illustrated’s 2025 winners list.
How the winners are chosen
The men’s Ballon d’Or is decided by a jury of 100 journalists, one from each of the top 100 nations in the men’s FIFA ranking, and the women’s award by a jury drawn from the top 50 nations in the women’s ranking, according to ESPN. Each juror ranks ten players on a sliding scale from 15 points down to 1, according to Forbes, and voting for the Ballon d’Or closed on 28 September. The men’s award covers performances from 3 August 2025 to the World Cup final on 19 July 2026, and the criteria put individual performance first, team achievements second and class and fair play third.
The Gerd Müller Trophy and the Sócrates Award
The Gerd Müller Trophy goes to the season’s top scorer, and ESPN reports that Harry Kane’s 73 goals for club and country make him the men’s winner. Ewa Pajor won the first women’s trophy in 2025 with 43 goals for Barcelona, and ESPN describes her as locked in to retain it, although season totals reported elsewhere put Khadija Shaw and Pernille Harder ahead of her 33, so the women’s result is worth checking on the night.
The Sócrates Award recognises solidarity initiatives and social causes supported by a footballer, and it is named after the Brazilian footballer Sócrates. Sadio Mané won it in 2022, Vinícius Júnior in 2023 and Jenni Hermoso in 2024, and the Xana Foundation is the current holder, according to Wikipedia. No shortlist has been published.
What to watch for on the night
The men’s race is unusually open, with Kane’s individual numbers set against Yamal’s World Cup and La Liga title, Mbappé’s Golden Boot, Rodri’s Golden Ball and Kvaratskhelia’s Champions League award. On the women’s side the absence of Bonmatí opens the award to a new winner, with Putellas and Pajor leading the Barcelona contingent against Shaw, Dumornay and Russo. The Kopa and Yashin trophies both have reigning winners on the lists, and the coach and club awards pit PSG’s second consecutive European title against Arsenal’s first league title in 22 years. Our rankings for each category cover the case for and against every nominee.
Building a Ballon d’Or tracker with player data
If you are building a tracker for the night, store each category, its nominees and its result as separate records, so you can publish the shortlist now and fill in the winners as they are announced. Keep the club a player represented during the season separate from their current club, because several nominees moved after the season. Ferran Torres is nominated as a Barcelona player but now plays for PSG, Rodri is nominated for Manchester City and now plays for Barcelona, Marc Cucurella left Chelsea for Real Madrid during the World Cup, and Manaka Matsukubo moved from North Carolina Courage to Chelsea in July.
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