Who will win the 2026 World Cup Golden Ball? Lamine Yamal the favourite
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.
9=) Vitinha (Portugal)
Portugal being able to call upon the best midfield partnership in club football feels like cheating. The double pivot of Vitinha and Joao Neves is a huge reason why Portugal are in fact not ‘dark horses’ as we expect plenty of uninformed pundits to dub them ahead of the tournament but very, very bright horses indeed.
And joining Vitinha on the same odds are Rayan Cherki, Ousmane Dembele and Raphinha. Some good players about, aren’t there?
7=) Bruno Fernandes (Portugal)
At the peak of his powers after clean-sweeping the Premier League awards following his record-breaking 21-assist season and it’s all too easy to imagine him putting several balls on plates for the old man up top to bundle home.
7=) Pedri (Spain)
Central to everything Spain do well. And if Spain win it (as they absolutely could) then the Barcelona midfielder could be left holding a Golden Ball.
6) Vinicius Junior (Brazil)
A difficult season for Real Madrid for a whole host of reasons and yet Vinicius still managed 22 goals and 14 assists.
He’s presumably looking forward to a summer back playing under Carlo Ancelotti ahead of what will either be a sickening bromance or a blazing war with Jose Mourinho depending on which Galactico the Portuguese boss decides to make an example of at the Bernabeu.
5) 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.
4) 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.
3) Kylian Mbappe (France)
It is objectively funny that in the two seasons since leaving Paris Saint-Germain for Real Madrid, PSG have won two Champions Leagues and Los Blancos have won diddly squat, but Mbappe has also scored a ridiculous 86 goals in that time and you would be daft to bet against a guy playing in a wonderful France team who’s already scored an actual hat-trick in a World Cup final.
2) Michael Olise (France)
Having seen Olise destroy left-backs across Europe this term on his way to 53 goal contributions in 52 games for Bayern Munich it’s mad to think that at the age of 22 – yet to be capped by France – he was sat at home watching Les Bleus lose to Spain in the semi-finals of Euro 2024.
A hat-trick v Northern Ireland in a pre-World Cup friendly has seen his odds tumble.
1) 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 favourite 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.
