Should the Ballon d’Or go to a Champions League winner?Or a World Cup winner?Maybe winning the biggest trophies doesn’t matter, and perhaps a striker who has reached new levels at the age of 33 and mastered two positions at once could be taking home the award on Monday, October 26.Or one of France’s outrageous front line who lit up the World Cup before falling at the semi-final stage to the eventual winners Spain.With the 30-man shortlist announced on Tuesday, we asked six of our writers to pick who they think should win this year’s award…

OUR 2026 MEN’S BALLON D’OR NOMINEES!

— Ballon d’Or (@ballondor) September 8, 2026Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (PSG and Georgia)As a kid looking through the almanacks of past Ballon d’Or winners, I remember running my finger down the list and stopping at players from the Warsaw Pact countries. Josef Masopust, Lev Yashin, Florian Albert, Oleg Blokhin and Igor Belanov. There was an air of mystery to them. Outlier energy. No one from Eastern Europe and the Caucasus has won this award since Andriy Shevchenko in 2004. I’d love Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to get his hands on it. Kvaratskhelia is that rare thing in modern football. A genuine bolt from the blue. I remember watching his debut for Napoli at the Bentegodi and thinking: Where did this guy come from? Wait? Dinamo Batumi? That day in Verona, Kvaratskhelia scored and assisted against Hellas Verona. The following weekend he scored two against Monza. You knew instantly it was the start of something special.By the end of the season, Napoli were champions for the first time in 33 years. Since moving to PSG in January 2025, they have won the Champions League back-to-back. Kvara’s role in each of these historic achievements is no coincidence. The guy who came out of nowhere wins where no one else usually does. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia has been instrumental to PSG’s domination of Europe (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)OK, his numbers last season perhaps pale in comparison with those of Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane: just the 33 goals and assists in all competitions. But his impact in the knockout stages of the Champions League was, once again, breathtaking. It was his goal that made the difference in the play-off against Monaco. He then torched Chelsea and was man of the match in the game of the season: the semi-final first leg against Bayern Munich, a 5-4 classic. As a Georgian, Kvaratskhelia does not have the profile or celebrity of some of the other players on the shortlists. For instance, he does not have Real Madrid and Jose Mourinho lobbying for him every week as Mbappe does. Consider this the start of the Kvara campaign. James HorncastleLamine Yamal (Barcelona and Spain)Before this summer, only Pele, Giuseppe Bergomi and Kylian Mbappe had appeared in a men’s World Cup final as teenagers and finished it as champions. Six days after turning 19, Lamine Yamal joined them.Yamal scored 16 goals and supplied 12 assists in La Liga as Barcelona retained the title, earning the competition’s player of the season award. He added another six goals in the Champions League, and before turning 19, he had scored 11 times in the competition — more than any player in its history at that age.At the World Cup, Yamal completed a tournament high of 35 successful dribbles, and his eight appearances also set a new record, alongside Pau Cubarsi, for the most World Cup matches played before turning 20.Lamine Yamal, World Cup winner. Will the Ballon d’Or be next? (Alex Pantling – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)Last year, Yamal finished second to Ousmane Dembele in the Ballon d’Or vote, receiving 1,059 points to the Frenchman’s 1,380, while only 18. He became the first player to win the Kopa Trophy twice (which is given to the best young player), and 12 months on, the case is stronger and his medal collection heavier.Amelie ClaydonMichael Olise (Bayern Munich and France)For a player who was lining up for Reading in the Championship just five years ago, Michael Olise has had an incredible career trajectory.Following an outstanding second season at Bayern Munich and his standout performances at the World Cup with France, he must surely be a strong contender for this year’s Ballon D’Or.At Bayern, Olise scored 22 goals and made 31 assists in 52 appearances for Vincent Kompany’s side. That included a sublime late winner in the Champions League quarter-final second leg to knock Real Madrid out of the competition.Olise, who was released by both Chelsea and Manchester City as a boy, carried his club form into the summer World Cup, playing behind Mbappe in a fearsome French attacking quartet.During the tournament, Olise was exceptional, registering seven assists, as France scored 16 goals en route to the semi-final, where they came unstuck against an excellent Spain side.Michael Olise has gone from Championship wonderkid to Champions League star (Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto via Getty Images)Olise, one of football’s more enigmatic figures who does not have an official brand or boot sponsorship deal, has become one of the most exciting players to watch in world football, with the way he effortlessly glides across the pitch. “This guy is on another planet; he is just different,” former France striker Thierry Henry said on FOX Sports during the World Cup. “MVP (most valuable player) will always be Kylian, because he will put numbers that nobody can do, but the most important player is Michael Olise.”Tom BurrowsKylian Mbappe (Real Madrid and France)After everything Kylian Mbappe has packed into his career, it can feel like a trick of the imagination that he hasn’t already added a Ballon d’Or to his collection.This year, I suspect it might be just beyond him, too. Real Madrid did not have a vintage season, despite him accumulating 42 goals. France were heralded as the most thrilling team of the World Cup but fell to Spain at the semi-final. And, yes, Harry Kane is the most likely winner after his annual goals bonanza for Bayern Munich and England. I’m also aware that there is nothing in the rules to stipulate that extra points should be available for having the X factor. But I’m still drawn in by Mbappe’s portfolio of 58 goals for club and country. Which player put together a greater showreel in the World Cup? Whose goals will live longer in the memory?Kylian Mbappe has scored a record 22 goals at the World Cup (Buda Mendes/Getty Images)Call me old-fashioned, but I want the Ballon d’Or to go to the most consistently thrilling player, the guy you can’t take your eyes off. The showman. Lionel Messi used to be that player. Cristiano Ronaldo, too.Kane might win the numbers game and — surprise — Bayern might have bagged their umpteenth Bundesliga title in a row. But it is the presence of Mbappe, more than anybody else, that would make me quicken my step outside a football stadium and that shouldn’t be underestimated now that the Messi-Ronaldo dominance of this award is no more. Daniel TaylorRodri (Barcelona and Spain)