Harry Kane is setting his sights on winning the Champions League title with Bayern Munich, and ending England's wait to win a major tournament at the national team level, after he was crowned Monday with the Ballon d'Or for the best player in the world, in the most prominent stage of his career so far.
In his hometown of London, Kane became the first English player to win the award in 25 years, after beating Frenchman Kylian Mbappe and Spaniard Lamine Yamal to win the title of best player in the world.
The coronation of the 33-year-old player was his reward for an exceptional season during which he scored 73 goals in 65 matches for his club and his country, and led Bayern Munich to achieve the domestic double in the league and cup.
The England captain said: “I was going to say it is a dream come true, but it exceeds even my wildest dreams. It is unbelievable.”
He added: “I think this is a great achievement for England and for our country. Holding the ceremony here in London was a good omen for me, and it has been a long wait. “To bring England back to the forefront and bring this trophy here makes me very proud.”
Kane is the all-time top scorer for both the England national team and Tottenham, but his collection of group titles is still limited to the local titles he has won in Germany since joining Bayern Munich in 2023.
Bayern was eliminated from the semi-finals of the Champions League last season by Paris Saint-Germain, who later won the title.
After losing the European Cup finals in 2021 and 2024, Kane received another disappointment with the England national team following the defeat by Argentina in the World Cup semi-finals.
But at 33, he believes he can still win some of the biggest trophies in world football.
“I still have a lot to achieve in this game,” he said. The Champions League at club level, and winning a major tournament with England, are definitely the first priority.”
He added: “There are many wonderful things I want to achieve.”
Unlike Yamal and Mbappe, who won the World Cup as teenagers, Kane was not a candidate from the beginning to become a global star. Tottenham loaned him 4 times to clubs in the lower divisions before he established himself in the first team, but he said that the memories of that stage still push him to succeed at the highest levels for as long as possible.
He continued: “I went through a lot of ups and downs, especially at the beginning of my career, when you are in the process of discovering yourself, whether as a professional or in life in general.”
He added: “I found ways to develop and perhaps surpass players who were more talented than me.”
He continued, saying: “From that moment on, I think it helped shape my character as a professional, because I don’t take anything for granted. “I always know that there is someone like me, or younger than me, trying to take my place, whether in the England national team or in Bayern Munich.”
Bayern Munich's German striker, Harry Kane, was crowned with the 2026 Ballon d'Or, during the ceremony held Monday in London, after a 2025-2026 season full of distinguished numbers and statistics.
The England national team captain was succeeded in the list of award winners by French striker Ousmane Dembélé, a Paris Saint-Germain player.
Kane (33 years old) scored 61 goals in 51 matches with Bayern in all competitions, contributing to the German giant winning the domestic league and cup double. He also led England to the semi-finals of the World Cup and scored six goals during their campaign in the tournament.
Kane became the first English player to win the prestigious award in 25 years, after Michael Owen won it in 2001. He also became the fifth Englishman to win it after Stanley Matthews, Bobby Charlton, Kevin Keegan and Owen.
Kane also became the first player active in Bayern Munich to win the award since Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who won it twice in a row in 1980 and 1981. He is also the fourth Bayern player to win the award after Gerd Müller, Franz Beckenbauer and Rummenigge.
Among the other candidates, Spaniard Lamine Yamal may have been influenced by his modest individual performance in the World Cup, where he scored one goal, despite his country winning the title, in addition to Barcelona's exit from the quarter-finals of the Champions League. The player compensated for this by winning the Best Young Player award for the third year in a row. As for Frenchman Kylian Mbappé, he paid the price of not winning any title during the 2026 season, despite his exceptional individual numbers, after he topped the scorers’ rankings in the Spanish League and the Champions League, and became the all-time top scorer in the World Cup.
Spanish star Alexia Potias was crowned the Women's Ballon d'Or for the third time in her career, after winning it in 2021 and 2022, during the ceremony held Monday in London.
The former Barcelona player, who is currently playing for the English club London City Lionesses, succeeds her compatriot Aitana Bonmatti in the list of winners of the award, after the latter won the title three times in a row between 2023 and 2025, but injuries spoiled her season.
The 32-year-old player, who is called the “Queen” of Spanish football, won her fourth title in the Women’s Champions League last season, before moving to the London City Lionesses club, owned by American businesswoman Michelle Kang.
Botias' winning the Ballon d'Or for the third time, four years after her second coronation, embodies her great ability to overcome difficulties, after she returned from a serious knee injury she suffered in July 2022, which prevented her from participating in the European Cup with the Spanish national team.
In early October, the former Spanish national team captain, number 11, made history again, after she became the first Spanish player to play 150 international matches, after many months of absence from the national team due to injury.
Botias' influence was not limited to the green rectangle, but extended outside it, especially after Spain won the World Cup in 2023, when she was one of the most prominent drivers of the "It's Over" protest movement against sexual violence and harassment in sports, following the forced kiss imposed by the former president of the Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, on her colleague Jenny Hermoso.
