Ballon d'Or 2026 live updates: Winners, rankings, final awards results as Harry Kane and Lamine Yamal battle it out

PALLADIUM THEATRE, LONDON — After a whole year of goals, trophies, speculation, and celebration, the time to learn the winner of the 2026 Ballon d'Or has finally arrived.

Tonight, France Football will reveal the winner at the award gala, which has been won by four different players in each of the last four years.

For the first time, the ceremony will be held outside France, as they honor the first winner of the Ballon d'Or, Stanley Matthews, by holding the 70th trophy presentation at the Palladium Theatre in London, England.

Hosted by Kate Scott and Thierry Henry, this year's ceremony will reveal the 2026 Ballon d'Or winner for the men's and women's side, as well as a host of other awards including best coach, best goalkeeper, best young player, and best club.

Live updates of Ballon d'Or trophy ceremony, commentary, video

11:04 a.m. — Here at TSN, we've given our verdict on who should win. Find out why none of our writers have picked Lamine Yamal and we've even gone for a rogue pick on the shortlist.

10:30 a.m. — So who are the frontrunners to win today's men's Ballon d'Or? It's pretty much a two-horse race between Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe right now according to the bookmakers. Interestingly, Lamine Yamal has dropped out of favor with the bookies having been a real contender up until 24 hours ago. What do they know that we don't?!

10 a.m. — Welcome to The Sporting News' coverage of Ballon d'Or day 2026! We're expecting the rankings of the nominees from places 30 to 11 to be announced late afternoon European time before the ceremony in London gets underway in the evening.

Ballon d'Or 2026 live results from trophy ceremony

What time does the 2026 Ballon d'Or ceremony start?

The red carpet arrivals at the London Palladium Theatre in London, England starts at around 7 p.m. local time, with the ceremony scheduled to start at 8 p.m. and finish by 10 p.m. All times are estimated by event organizers.

Here's how that arrivals time translates across some of the major territories, keeping in mind that Europe — including the UK — saw daylight savings time end on Sunday, giving them a four-hour time difference from North America this week: