Harry Kane beats Mbappe and Yamal to win the Ballon d’Or after record-breaking Bayern season

Harry Kane has won the Ballon d’Or, becoming the first English player to receive football’s most prestigious individual award since Michael Owen in 2001.

The England captain and Bayern Munich striker was presented with the prize at a ceremony in London after a season in which he scored 61 goals in 51 appearances for the German club. That was a Bayern record for a single campaign and 19 more than any other player in Europe’s five major leagues.

Kane finished ahead of Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappe, who was second, and Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal, who placed third.

The 32-year-old becomes the fifth Englishman to win the award, following Stanley Matthews in 1956, Bobby Charlton in 1966, Kevin Keegan in 1978 and 1979, and Owen in 2001. Other winners from the United Kingdom include Scotland’s Denis Law, in 1964, and Northern Ireland’s George Best, in 1968.

Kane’s victory came despite Bayern Munich failing to win the Champions League, having been eliminated in the semi-finals. The club did secure a domestic double, but his individual performances proved decisive in a vote traditionally influenced by major team honours.

He scored 36 goals in the Bundesliga, finishing 17 ahead of the nearest challenger, and added 14 in the Champions League. In the German Cup, he scored 10 goals, including three in Bayern’s 3-0 final victory over Stuttgart, while he also scored once in the German Super Cup.

Kane’s 61-goal season matched Cristiano Ronaldo’s total for Real Madrid 11 years earlier. His overall tally rose to 73 goals in 65 club and international matches, alongside eight assists, after he scored 12 times for England, including six goals at the World Cup.

Only Lionel Messi, with 82 goals for Barcelona and Argentina in 2011-12, has scored more in a season among players from Europe’s major leagues. Gerd Muller scored 72 in 1972-73, while Ronaldo reached 66 in both 2011-12 and 2014-15. Brazil’s Ronaldo scored 64 in 1996-97, the same total as Erling Haaland in 2022-23 and Luis Suarez in 2015-16.

“Not many people expected me to get here, and maybe I did not expect to reach this level myself,” Kane told DAZN.

“I had a lot of ups and downs, especially at the start of my career. I was never the player people saw as a future superstar, unlike some players today.

“I had to be patient and work hard. A lot of the time I had to fight with myself, and overcome that through self-belief and determination.”

England manager Thomas Tuchel described the award as “a great honour”, while Prince William called Kane “a great leader and an exceptional player”.

Former England striker Alan Shearer said Kane deserved the prize, telling BBC Sport: “Harry Kane should be the winner of the Ballon d’Or.

“His numbers over the past 12 to 18 months have been absolutely incredible, both for Bayern Munich and England. That is why he deserves to win it.”

Danny Murphy said Kane’s scoring had been relentless and described him as the world’s best centre-forward over the previous 12 months.

The award ended England’s 25-year wait and made Kane the first Bayern Munich player to win it since Karl-Heinz Rummenigge in 1981. His total also surpassed the club’s previous single-season records associated with forwards including Gerd Muller, Rummenigge and Robert Lewandowski.

Kane’s success was celebrated in England on Monday evening when the Wembley arch was illuminated in gold. It was only the fifth time in the past 20 years that the Ballon d’Or had gone to a player who had not won the World Cup, Champions League, European Championship or Copa America. Three of those occasions involved Messi.

The award has been open to players of all nationalities since 1995, having previously been restricted to Europeans after its creation in 1956. In four World Cup years, the winner had also lifted the trophy, although Messi’s 2023 award followed the winter 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Luka Modric have also won in years when they did not win the World Cup.

Kane’s attention will now turn to defending the title. He has scored 10 goals in his first 12 matches for Bayern this season and six in four Nations League games for England, giving him 16 goals in 16 matches. Bayern have also started unbeaten in the Bundesliga and Champions League.

Lamine Yamal remains a leading rival after scoring 10 goals and providing 10 assists in 13 appearances for Barcelona in La Liga and the Champions League. If he wins next year, he will be 20 and would become the youngest player to receive the award, surpassing Brazil’s Ronaldo, who was 21 when he won in 1997.

Mbappe has also scored 14 goals in 13 matches for Real Madrid and France. Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain are among the other leading Champions League contenders; no Arsenal player has won the Ballon d’Or, while Paris Saint-Germain could strengthen its players’ claims by challenging for major honours.

Outside Messi and Ronaldo, the last player to win the award in consecutive years was Marco van Basten, in 1988 and 1989. Maintaining the standard required to join him will be Kane’s next challenge.