Ballon d'Or Power Rankings: Harry Kane leads Bayern-filled list; Lamine Yamal ahead of Kylian Mbappe

Both Yamal and Mbappe fail to make the top three, while Bayern have the top two

James Benge

Apr 21, 2026

10:03 pm ET

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8 min read

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Folks, we are so back! It's been a long winter in which our Ballon d'Or power rankings have been hibernating but we come to you at the turn of the tide. The final weeks of the domestic season are upon us, the Champions League is down to its last four and the World Cup glimmers on the horizon. This is where the best footballer on the planet reveals themselves.

They will, however, have been seeding more than a few suggestions over the last eight months. In the most basic terms, if you haven't got your team to a position where they might win the Champions League, you might well find yourself getting dinged in these rankings. And (if it matters as much to you, unnamed elite footballer), it might hurt your chances in the vote too. When we left this exercise before Christmas, it looked like a clear three-way battle for first place. Now the frontrunner looks clear but with plenty of yards left to cover, there are at least a few who might burst out of the chasing pack to snatch it at a photo finish. Let's get our binoculars out and assess the runners and riders:

1. Harry Kane, Bayern Munich and England (+2)

It's hard to really argue against this, isn't it? Even if you want to apply a bit of a Bundesliga tax to the sheer volume of goals Harry Kane has weighed in at club level, well, there's 50 of them, including in both legs of the win over Real Madrid in the Champions League, both stagings of Der Klassiker, matches against Atalanta, Chelsea. In pretty much every big game this season, Kane has turned up. Scrub penalties from the equation and his club tally does drop to 35 but that is still six more than the nearest in Europe's top five leagues.

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In total terms (in general, we don't want to adjust to per 90 too often, if you want to have had the best season of anyone a key aspect is regularly turning up), Kane also sits in the 97th percentile of forwards for chances created and expected assists, the 96th for assists, the 99.9th for shots. He is even in the 96th for possession recoveries. This is a 32-year-old at the peak of his powers. Given that turning that into winning the really meaningful prizes does count, he might need to win a Champions League and/or a World Cup to get the votes but if he keeps performing like this in those months when the ankles start aching, there's no reason why he shouldn't.

2. Michael Olise, Bayern Munich and France (+3)

As a pure engine for my own enjoyment of football this season, no one quite matches Michael Olise. The France international is nothing short of a joy to watch, utterly at ease with his talent, so secure in the knowledge he can beat anyone he needs to with a dribble, a pass or a shot. He is one of those players who has you giddy with excitement when you're about to watch his team play. He also addresses the most important question any eye test merchant must address -- is he a baller? -- with a statistical profile, that, well...

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I suppose it's one of those ones that has you double-check the data source. He can't be at the absolute pinnacle in every chance creating metric, can he? He can.

3. Vitinha, PSG and Portugal (+6)

Now, this is fiddly. Paris Saint-Germain are quietly on course for what would be a season perhaps even more exceptional than last season. If they were to go back to back in the Champions League, they would have done so with the minutes of their star players heavily surpressed, partly through the injuries that did not hit them 12 months ago and also as Luis Enrique tried to navigate the months after a season that ran from August 2024 to July 2025. Ousmane Dembele has only just cleared 1500 minutes; half of the outfield starters from last year's Champions League final win haven't yet reached 2000.

Not that Vitinha deserves to be in the running on the basis of attendance, of course. The central midfielder leads Europe's top five leagues for progressive passes and is second only to Lamine Yamal for progressive carries. He gets the ball into dangerous areas just like he did last season but this term he is even more effective in those spots. Seven goals, eight assists from a player you'd nominally term a DM? That is remarkable stuff.

4. Lamine Yamal, Barcelona and Spain (--)

5. Kylian Mbappe, Real Madrid and France (-4)

Here's where it gets a bit contentious but we should say that post-Olise, there was a real drop off in the strength of each player's candidacy. If Kane or his Bayern running mate stay on the path they're on, there's no catching them. Spots three through six right now are a group of quite hard-to-separate players jostling for the podium.

One might imagine that Kylian Mbappe would be a bit higher than he is but it is worth saying that when you stri