Rodri has the Golden Ball. Harry Kane leads the Ballon d'Or 2026 race.

Spain beat Argentina 1-0 after extra time to win the World Cup, and the individual awards followed the trophy almost to a man. Rodri collected the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player, per ESPN. Yet the shortest price for the Ballon d'Or 2026 belongs to none of Spain's winners. It belongs to Harry Kane.

Spain swept the board

Rodri's Golden Ball led the way, with Lionel Messi taking the Silver Ball and Kylian Mbappe the Bronze, ESPN reported. Spain did not stop there. Pau Cubarsi, 19, was named Best Young Player, and Unai Simon claimed the Golden Glove after seven clean sheets in eight matches, conceding just once in the entire tournament.

Mbappe had the consolation of the Golden Boot. His 10 goals and four assists made him the first man to finish top scorer at two World Cups, per ESPN and NBC Sports, with Messi next on eight.

For Rodri the honour completed a rare set. He now holds the World Cup, the Champions League he won with Manchester City in 2023 and the 2024 Ballon d'Or, only the 11th man in the men's game to hold all three and the first Spaniard to manage it, per SI.com and City's own report. Charlton, Beckenbauer and Zidane are in that company. So, now, is he.

The bookmakers are not convinced

Winning the Golden Ball has not made Rodri the man to beat. Quite the opposite. Sky Sports' market roundup, dated 20 July, has Kane as the outright Ballon d'Or 2026 favourite at 13/8, with Lamine Yamal next at 9/4, Messi at 11/4 and Mbappe at 7/2. Rodri is the outsider of the five, out at 9/2.

That gap says plenty. Sky's own post-tournament power rankings placed Rodri only 18th among the World Cup's standout performers, ranking both Messi and Mbappe above him and concluding that the best team, rather than the best player, had walked off with the best-player award. The argument over whether he deserved it ahead of Messi is a live one, and the odds carry the same doubt.

None of it is settled. Prices move every matchday, and the award covers the full season from 1 August 2025 to 31 July 2026, so a strong autumn from Yamal or a run of goals from Kane at Bayern would shift the market quickly.

London calling

The stage, at least, is fixed. UEFA and France Football have announced that the 70th Ballon d'Or ceremony will be held in London on 26 October, the first time the award has left Paris in seven decades, per UEFA.com and ESPN. The move honours Stanley Matthews, the England winger who became the inaugural winner in 1956.

There is a neat symmetry to it. A French prize, celebrating an Englishman, finally crosses the Channel just as an England captain heads the betting and a City midfielder holds the World Cup. Whether Kane converts favouritism into the trophy, or Yamal announces himself, or Rodri quiets his doubters, will not be known until the envelope is opened in the autumn. For now the race is open, the transfer window is loud, and the venue, for once, is not Paris.