Ballon d'Or Race Officially Began
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At 2:58 p.m. Central European Time today, France Football pulled back the curtain on the names that matter most in football this year: the nominees for the 2026 Ballon d'Or.
It's not just any year. This edition marks the award's 70th anniversary — first handed out in 1956 to England's Stanley Matthews — and for the first time in its history, the ceremony itself is leaving Paris. On October 26, the trophy will be presented at the London Palladium Theatre, a nod to Matthews and to English football's place in the award's origin story.
Today's list reads like a who's who of the sport: Kylian Mbappé, Vinícius Júnior, and Jude Bellingham representing Real Madrid, Erling Haaland flying the flag for Manchester City, and Rodri among the contenders after a season split between Manchester City and Barcelona. On the women's side, Barcelona dominates the conversation with Alexia Putellas, Ewa Pajor, and Caroline Graham Hansen all in the running.
The ceremony is still seven weeks away. But the actual competition — the one that plays out in group chats, sports debate shows, and a thousand "he should've won it" arguments — starts the exact minute a shortlist becomes real. That minute was today, at 2:58 p.m. CET.
We're claiming that minute: the one where an actual list, not speculation, decided who's allowed to dream about lifting football's most famous individual trophy this year.