The world champion is not on his list
Spain won the World Cup a month ago. Lamine Yamal was part of the celebrations. Lothar Matthaus did not put him in his top picks.
The German unveiled his 2026 Ballon d’Or rankings on Tuesday. At the top: Harry Kane. Not Yamal, not Mbappe, not Bellingham. The Bayern Munich striker, who has lifted neither the Champions League nor the World Cup this year.
“For me, Kane is the player who deserves the Ballon d’Or most,” Matthaus said.
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His logic: the full year, not five weeks
The thinking comes down to one point. The Ballon d’Or should reward 12 months, not a summer tournament. Matthaus judges Kane on his whole Bayern season, two domestic trophies in the bag, and the kind of consistency few in Bavaria are questioning.
He does admit the gap in the CV. No Champions League, no World Cup. That matters. But not enough, in his view, to put the England captain behind Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham or Lionel Messi, all of whom he ranks lower.
At 65, the former Germany midfielder knows the score. He won the prize in 1990. In a year when he had, of course, just won the World Cup.
An opinion bound to stir things up
The timing does Kane no favours. He still carries the tag of a striker who comes up short on the biggest nights, and England’s semi-final exit at the World Cup has done nothing to shake that reputation.
Pick a striker over a World Cup winner and the argument writes itself. Matthaus knew that before he opened his mouth.
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