How is the 2026 Ballon d'Or decided? Do trophies matter more than goals? | OneFootball

The award is not decided solely by titles or statistics

The 2026 Ballon d’Or will be presented next October 26 at the London Palladium Theatre, in a special edition marking the 70th anniversary of the award created by France Football in 1956. The ceremony will be held in London for the first time, as a tribute to Stanley Matthews, the first winner in history.

With the nominees already confirmed, one of the recurring questions is how the winner is determined. Do goals carry more weight? Titles? Is the Champions League worth more than a World Cup? Can a footballer win without claiming any trophy?

The answer lies in the three official criteria established for the selection.

The three Ballon d’Or criteria

According to the award’s rules, journalists must assess footballers based on three main aspects:

The first point concerns the player’s performance during the reference period. Goals and assists are part of that assessment, but they are not the only elements: the player’s influence, consistency, and ability to make the difference also matter.

The second criterion covers titles won with club and national team, while the third considers the player’s behavior and sportsmanship.

Does winning the Champions League or the World Cup guarantee the award?

No.

No title automatically grants the Ballon d’Or. Winning a World Cup, a Champions League, a league title, or any other competition is part of the collective achievements analyzed by the jury, but it must be put into context alongside the player’s individual performance.

For that reason, two players can reach the vote with different cases: one may have an extraordinary statistical season, while another may arrive with several major titles and a decisive role in them.

The rules do not set a number of goals, titles, or assists that automatically makes a player the winner.

The role of the World Cup in the voting

The reference season also includes international competitions. UEFA explains that the evaluation period covers the full season, from August to the following August, including tournaments such as the World Cup, the European Championship, the Copa América, the Africa Cup of Nations, and the Olympic Games when applicable.

This means that performance during the World Cup can directly form part of the journalists’ assessment.

A player who stands out with his national team can strengthen his case under both the individual and collective criteria, but again, the title alone does not determine the outcome.

How do journalists vote?

The winner is not chosen directly by France Football or UEFA.

The men’s Ballon d’Or is decided by an international jury of specialized journalists. Each represented country has one journalist who receives the list of 30 nominees and must rank their 10 favorites in order.

The points distribution is as follows:

The player who accumulates the most points wins the award. If there is a tie, the first tiebreaker is the number of first-place votes received; if the tie remains, second-place, third-place, and subsequent votes are reviewed.

So, is there a preference for goals or titles?

There is no official mathematical formula that assigns a fixed value to each element.

The criteria allow the jury to assess individual performance, collective success, and sporting conduct together. Therefore, goals may be crucial for a striker, while for a midfielder or defender, other aspects of performance may also carry greater weight.

Likewise, a collective title can strengthen a player’s candidacy, but the criteria themselves state that it must be evaluated together with the player’s individual performance and importance within the team.

The cases of the 2026 nominees

This year’s list of candidates brings together different profiles with different arguments. Lamine Yamal, Kylian Mbappé, Harry Kane, Rodri, Fabián Ruiz, Lionel Messi, Ousmane Dembélé, and Vinícius Júnior, among others, are among the 30 official nominees.

Some arrive with outstanding individual numbers; others can point to domestic or international titles, while certain footballers combine both elements.

That very diversity explains why the Ballon d’Or does not work like a ranking based solely on statistics or trophies.

The final decision will come down to the votes

Next October 26, the result of a vote will be revealed in which each journalist must interpret those criteria and rank their ten candidates.

Therefore, there is no rule stating that the Champions League carries more weight than the World Cup, that goals are worth more than titles, or that a player without trophies is automatically ruled out.

The regulations set the criteria; the jury is responsible for applying them when analyzing each candidate’s season.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.