With Spain\u2019s World Cup victory now settled, the conversation has shifted to the final major individual award of 2026, the Ballon d\u2019Or. This year\u2019s contest feels unusually open, with several players making persuasive claims through a mix of team honours and standout performances on the biggest stages.<\/p>\n
At the top of the list is Fabi\u00e1n Ruiz, whose case rests on a rare double. He is the only player in the world this year to win both the Champions League and the World Cup, doing so with Paris Saint-Germain and Spain. He was influential in PSG\u2019s Ligue 1 title run despite injury problems, then stepped into the Champions League final against Arsenal as an unexpected starter. For Spain, he appeared throughout the tournament, started the final win over Argentina and scored the opening goal in the quarterfinal victory over Belgium.<\/p>\n
Erling Haaland also belongs firmly in the discussion. Norway\u2019s quarterfinal run was one of the tournament\u2019s surprises, and Haaland was its central figure, scoring seven times, including both goals in the 2-1 win over Brazil. His club season remained relentless too, with 38 goals across all competitions and a third Golden Boot in four years.<\/p>\n
Jude Bellingham rebuilt his Ballon d\u2019Or case in North America after an injury-hit season at Real Madrid. He led England to the semifinals with seven goals, including a late winner against France in the third-place playoff. Michael Olise also stood out, finishing the World Cup with seven assists and adding 22 goals and 31 assists for Bayern Munich, where he was named Bundesliga Player of the Season.<\/p>\n
Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 followed up his 2025 Ballon d\u2019Or win with another major campaign for Paris Saint-Germain, scoring 20 goals and delivering decisive knockout-stage goals in the Champions League. Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 led the World Cup with 10 goals and finished with 42 for Real Madrid, while Harry Kane scored 61 club goals for Bayern Munich and Lionel Messi produced another major tournament and 43 goals for Inter Miami.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Spain\u2019s World Cup win has sharpened the Ballon d\u2019Or race, with several stars in the frame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17902,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1647,961],"tags":[593],"class_list":["post-17903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-champions-league","category-international","tag-ballon-dor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}