Revealed: The next five new winners of the Ballon d’Or, including next Messi v Ronaldo rivalry
Three of the last four Ballon d’Or winners have been first-time champions. This five will be the next to follow your Benzemas, your Rodris and your Dembeles.
And only one of them plays in the Premier League. Another used to, not that anyone remembers.
Kylian Mbappe
The current favourite to dethrone Ousmane Dembele is in prime position to state his case. Mbappe has 27 goals in 22 games this season, 58 goals in 58 games this calendar year, and could entirely conceivably win the World Cup, Champions League and La Liga before voting commences.
Mbappe has been nominated for the Ballon d’Or in every year since his breakthrough in 2017, ranking between 9th and 3rd. But even he knows that only one of those trophies will really count in an international tournament season.
“As soon as the World Cup final in 2022 ended, I knew Messi had won the Ballon d’Or,” he once said. “When you win the World Cup it makes the difference.”
And considering his World Cup records might be the most absurd of all for a player of his mere 26 years, he will take some stopping.
Lamine Yamal
The youngest nominee in Ballon d’Or history was ultimately pipped by Ousmane Dembele in 2025, but Yamal has two editions left to break the good Ronaldo‘s record as the award’s least old winner.
La Liga president Javier Tebas felt that if Yamal “had been older than 23, he would have won it, too”, because obviously La Liga president Javier Tebas felt that. The bloke can be really quite odd.
But he did add of the Barcelona forward that “if he continues at the level he’s at, which seems likely, I think there’s no doubt he’ll win the Ballon d’Or”.
It is an entirely feasible outcome for a player who has left a string of records in his wake already, even if Marc Cucurella’s divine hair is not among them.
Estevao
There will be eight opportunities for Palmeiras to collect a bonus on Estevao winning the Ballon d’Or. Chelsea are obliged to make a payment to the Brazilian club if the forward is crowned the world’s best player at any point up to 2033, and would presumably be thrilled to do so.
That clause stretches over the entirety of Estevao’s initial contract at Stamford Bridge, which as it stands would expire soon after he turns 26. But Todd Boehly and friends are presumably hashing out a new 20-year deal following his defenestration of Barcelona in the Champions League.
Estevao himself has referred to winning the Ballon d’Or as his “second-biggest dream” behind only winning the World Cup. Having established himself as a Selecao starter, the teenager might handle both career objectives simultaneously. But if not it feels like his future will revolve around the award either way.
And ours is collectively destined to be spent speculating whether Estevao and Yamal are the new Messi and Ronaldo.
Jude Bellingham
What greater honour for a divisive soloist to covet and claim?
It would be narratively exceptional if Bellingham were to reign, although it would surely require a strong World Cup campaign from someone whose place on the England plane is under supposed threat.
But looking beyond 2026, it is an entirely conceivable milestone on the trajectory of a ludicrously good player for two of the biggest teams in club and international football that Bellingham eventually lands a personal accolade which would surely take pride of place on the mantelpiece alongside his Birmingham City U15/16 Goal of the Season award from 2018.
What a way it would be to crown the “black superstar” who some aren’t and never will be ready for.
Vitinha
“Best midfielder in the world, he’ll be the next Ballon d’Or winner for me.”
Thomas Frank was probably just trying to make himself feel better – and presumably missed Vitinha being robbed by Rodrigo Bentancur before Randal Kolo Muani’s second goal in a daft game against PSG – but it would be undeniably funny if someone Wolves rejected the option to sign after a disappointing loan won the Ballon d’Or in the same year they went down.
