On Monday, all eyes will turn to London, where the Ballon d'Or award ceremony will be held, in light of an open competition between a number of the most prominent football stars, led by Frenchman Kylian Mbappe, Spaniard Lamine Yamal and Englishman Harry Kane.
France Football magazine, the winner of the prestigious individual award, is moving its celebratory ceremony to the United Kingdom for the first time, in its 70th edition, in a move that recalls the roots of the game in its historic homeland.
During the ceremony, the identity of the successor to the Frenchman, Ousmane Dembélé, will be revealed. Although the latter retained his Champions League title, his individual level did not reach the glow that characterized his performance in the previous season, which opens the door to intense competition to succeed him.
In terms of remarkable numbers, striker Kane is at the top of the scene, after scoring 61 goals for Bayern Munich, which reached the semi-finals of the European competition, bringing his tally to 73 goals when counting his goals with the England national team, which finished third in the 2026 World Cup.
Only Argentine Lionel Messi, who scored 82 goals in the 2010-2011 season, surpassed this number in one season.
Kane, the 33-year-old star of the Three Lions team, is trying not to be preoccupied with the Ballon d'Or race, as he puts it, despite the difficulty of ignoring it.
He said on Wednesday, after the 2-2 draw with Arsenal: “I try not to think about it, but it is difficult,” adding: “I will try to enjoy Monday evening as much as possible.”
The Three Lions captain's calm approach differs from the statements of his most prominent rivals, Mbappe, who is 27 years old, and Gamal, who is 19 years old.
The young Barcelona winger said confidently: “I honestly believe that I deserve the award this year, given the titles I achieved, the Spanish League and the World Cup. In my opinion, Mbappe and I are the best players in the world, that is quite clear. Everyone who follows the matches knows that.”
As for Mbappe, who did not win any group title, he relies on his individual numbers to strengthen his chances, after he topped the list of top scorers in the Spanish League with 25 goals, and the Champions League with 15 goals, and he also became the all-time top scorer in the World Cup with 22 goals, including ten goals in the 2026 edition.
The French star said: “I was a top scorer in the biggest competitions, and I think this year might be good for me, and I have a positive feeling about that.”
The Ballon d'Or is awarded based on the votes of journalists, one journalist from each country, representing the first 100 countries in the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) classification for men, and the first 50 countries in the women's classification.
The selection criteria, in order of importance, are the individual performance and the extent of the player’s influence and decisiveness, then the group results and titles won, and finally the sporting behavior.
The list of thirty candidates includes prominent names, including the captain of the Spanish national team, who won the World Cup, Rodri, his compatriot Fabian Reus, the Georgian winger of Saint-Germain, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, and the Argentine Lionel Messi, who won the award eight times, in addition to the French international Michael Oliset, who provided 31 assists and scored 22 goals with Bayern Munich last season.
The excitement extends to the women's award in the absence of Aitana Bonmatti.
It has become certain that Bonmati will abdicate her throne, after the injuries that kept her away for a long period hindered her career during the 2025-2026 season.
Therefore, Spanish Alexia Botías, who will be crowned in 2021 and 2022, aspires to win the Ballon d’Or for the third time in her career, an achievement that has only been achieved since the award was created eight years ago by her compatriot Aitana Bonmatti, who won it in the last three years, from 2023 to 2025.
Botias, the former Barcelona star who is currently playing for the English club London City Lionesses, is locked in a strong competition with Polish Eva Bjor and Spanish Claudia Pena, her former teammates in the Catalan club. Also prominent among the list of competitors are Haitian midfielder Melchi Dumornay, a professional in Lyon, France, and Jamaican striker Khadija Shaw, star of Manchester City.
The ceremony, which will be held on Monday evening and will be presented by a number of stars, led by former French star Thierry Henry, will include the distribution of several awards, similar to previous editions, including the best coach, the best young player, the best goalkeeper, and other awards.
A new award called “The Ballon d’Or for the best in history” will also be awarded to one of the former stars who won the Ballon d’Or at least twice, based on an electronic vote open to the public.
Elena Rybakina easily defeated unseeded Canadian Leila Fernandez 6-2, 6-2 in the final of the Ningbo Open tennis tournament on Sunday, to retain her title and lift the first trophy as world number one before the start of the women's final tournament next month.
This victory also helped the Kazakh player take a big step towards confirming first place in the world rankings by the end of the year, adding more brilliance to her amazing season in which she won the Australian Open title, before adding the US Open title to reach the top.
First seed Rybakina (27 years old) took the lead in the fifth game thanks to her usual strength, then fired a powerful backhand across the court to take a 4-2 lead before deciding the first set in just 38 minutes.
Fernandez, ranked No. 30 in the world, shined at the beginning of the next set, but Rybakina withstood the pressure and raised her level of performance, forcing her opponent to make a mistake and break her serve to lead 2-1, and then the player who has won three major titles took confident steps towards victory.
Rybakina, who won the Australian Open and US Open titles, raised her tally to 15 titles in the WTA tournaments, and also strengthened her chances of ending the year at the top of the world rankings.
Rybakina, who was born in Moscow and represents Kazakhstan, said during the coronation ceremony: “Thank you all for the wonderful atmosphere. Playing in front of you every day is amazing, and it gives me so much motivation and energy to keep going. “Winning the title here for the second time makes this place very special for me.”
Rybakina took control of the first set thanks to her attacking performance, leading 4-2 after breaking her opponent's serve, before expanding the gap to 5-2, then clinching the set 6-2 without losing a single point in her final game, in less than 40 minutes.
Rybakina, 27, missed the Wuhan Open this month due to a foot injury, but returned to competition strongly.
In the second set, Rybakina broke Fernandez's serve again to take a 2-1 lead, then saved two break points in the fourth game, limiting the Canadian's attempts to return to the match.
Rybakina continued her superiority, and broke her opponent's serve for the last time to lead 5-2, before deciding the match from the first opportunity to win a powerful forehand, confirming her retention of the title.
As for Fernandez, she was aspiring to win her second title within two months, but she collided with a decisive performance from Rybakina, who ended the confrontation with a clear advantage.
Rybakina's latest victory is a timely morale boost, after the setbacks she suffered in Beijing and Wuhan, as her attention now turns to the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo this week, before she begins defending her title in the season finale in Indian Wells, starting on November 8.
