‎France Football Chief Opens Up on Kane-Mbappe Ballon d’Or Battle

‎France Football editor-in-chief Vincent Garcia has revealed that Mbappe was close to winning the 2026 Ballon d’Or award ahead of Harry Kane.

‎In what was an historical night, Kane became the first Englishman in 25 years to win the Ballon d’Or, beating Mbappe and Lamine Yamal to lift football’s most prestigious individual prize.

‎Kane was unstoppable during the 2025-26 campaign with 73 goals for club and country. The 33-year-old Bayern Munich and England striker was the odds-on favourite coming into Monday’s event, but it appears the three-horse race was closer than anticipated.

‎Speaking after the event, Garcia revealed that the points gap between Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe in this year’s Ballon d’Or voting was even smaller than the margin separating Rodri and Vinicius Jr in 2024.

‎Garcia told L’Equipe on the red carpet, “This year, there were several serious contenders,” he began. “The two closest were the top two, Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe, and the race between them was decided by very little,” he said.‎

‎”The points gap between Kane and Mbappe was smaller than the gap between Rodri and Vinicius in 2024, which was 41 points – and that was already a very narrow margin at the time.”

Kylian Mbappe talks to Rodri and Harry Kane (L) during the 2026 Ballon d’Or France Football award ceremony. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP via Getty Images)

‎He added: “It was incredibly close. I was watching the results in real time during the month of the vote. Kylian led the race for a long time, but Harry Kane came back into contention, and in the end, it was decided by a very, very small number of points.”

‎Garcia also touched on Lamine Yamal losing out on the trophy and how Spain’s World Cup win ‘complicated’ the situation.

‎”Lamine Yamal became a world champion and that is a great achievement, but in truth he scored only one goal and began the tournament while injured,” he said.

‎”This complicated situation made the jury’s task extremely difficult in settling the comparison between the Spanish players.”

‎When asked who he voted for to win the award, Garcia confirmed that the person did not go on to secure victory.

‎”You should wait until it is published to find out, because I ask the jury members not to disclose their votes before the magazine comes out, so I won’t do that either,” he said.

‎”I voted for someone who did not win, and I think he would have deserved it too.”

‎The votes will be released on Saturday (October 31).