Who will win the 2026 World Cup Golden Ball? Messi odds-on after win v England
The Real Ronado, Zinedine Zidane, Diego Forlan and of course Lionel Messi are among the past winners of the Golden Ball, awarded to the best player at the World Cup.
We bring you the odds for the 2026 edition, courtesy of Oddschecker.
7) Harry Kane (England)
Plenty of tournament goals, including Golden Boots at the 2018 World Cup and Euro 2024, and a couple of finals, but never the twain shall meet. A game-winning goal in the World Cup final after 61 goals in 51 games for Bayern and surely the Ballon d’Or would be his too.
He looks like a man on a mission and his two goals to rescue England v DR Congo elevated him a few places on this list. But he also looked absolutely broken after the battle with Norway. And did bugger all v Argentina.
4=) Jude Bellingham (England)
Entered the betting after a brilliant performance against Croatia to remind the English press that we have two bona fide superstars. He has undoubtedly been England’s best player in this World Cup; he was phenomenal against Mexico and then again as England just about edged past Norway. But he looked knackered v Argentina and semi-final losers don’t win Golden Balls.
4=) Mikel Oyarzabal (Spain)
Could Spain’s unsung hero end up being really loudly sung?
4=) Kylian Mbappe (France)
Looked like the best player at this World Cup until he really didn’t.
3) Lamine Yamal (Spain)
He won the Young Player of the Tournament at Euro 2024 and is the clear favourite to win the same award at the World Cup while now making himself one of the favourites to win the bigger boys’ gong. At 18 he has won three La Liga titles with Barcelona to go with his European Championship with Spain. He’s a freak. But he could do very little against Cape Verde. He arrived v Saudi Arabia, mind.
We knew both him and Spain would need to improve to give either a chance of silverware and they really did v France.
2) Rodri (Spain)
This is what we wrote before the World Cup semi-final: ‘We’re out at 40/1 here as the bookies are really not convinced that Spain will win this World Cup. If they do, it might take a monumental effort from this fella over the last two games.’
There was then a phenomenal effort v France and he came in to 4/1. Now he just needs to stop…
1) Lionel Messi (Argentina)
The holder of the Golden Ball after driving Argentina to win the 2022 World Cup with seven goals and three assists, and he’s back again at the age of 38. And immediately scored a bloody hat-trick. Now on eight goals and he will clearly win this award if he drags Argentina to another unlikely triumph. He claimed two assists v England in the semi-final and is irrepressible.
