Lamine Yamal, Kylian Mbappe’s Three Main Rivals Teased by Ballon d’Or Organizer

For the first time in years, there is no clear favorite for the Ballon d’Or.

The World Cup winners, Spain, and Champions League victors, Paris Saint-Germain were two sides deliberately geared toward the collective rather than singlehandedly propelled by an individual. Even the romantic appeal of Lionel Messi’s run with Argentina was sullied by an ugly loss in the final.

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However, if you were to ask Lamine Yamal, there are two standout candidates.

“For me, [Kylian] Mbappé and I are the best in the world. It is clear to me. Everyone who watches the matches knows it,” Barcelona’s World Cup winner recently declared. Yamal would put himself ahead of Real Madrid’s talisman in the Ballon d’Or race-“I think I deserve it this year because of what I’ve won.”-but it would appear that the pool is wider than just two favorites.

L’Équipe, the sister publication of France Football which created the award and continues to hand it out each year, led with a potentially revealing front cover this week to preview the Ballon d’Or. Mbappé and Yamal are naturally prominent, but Messi, Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League winner Ousmane Dembélé and Europe’s top scorer Harry Kane also featured behind a headline which read: “It’s their project.”

La une du journal L’Équipe du mardi 15 septembre 2026

Pour lire votre édition https://t.co/ZzwFN2ZqI6pic.twitter.com/hqqCNtngNl

– L’Équipe (@lequipe) September 15, 2026

Those five names are understandable favorites. Between them, they have lifted every major piece of silverware and scored more than 200 goals. However, none won the individual accolade which comes closest to the Ballon d’Or in a World Cup year.

The One Nominee Pleased to Be Overlooked

Rodri was crowned the best player at the biggest competition on the planet this season, but no one appears to be putting his case forward for the Ballon d’Or. L’Équipe, Rodri’s own team and the player himself all feel entirely comfortably diverting attention elsewhere.

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“Ballon d’Or?” Rodri asked during a recent interview. “The club has chosen to back Lamine. They say he’s the player most deserving of the award, and that’s completely legitimate. I hope that a Spanish player wins.”

This is an entirely predictable approach from the softly spoken Spaniard.

“Maybe people would like me to be more marketable and they sometimes say, ‘Mate, you should …’ but I understand football differently,” Rodri shrugged to The Guardian back in 2024. “I know how it works so I don’t get frustrated if [I get overlooked]. If one day someone wants to reward the work, that’s welcome, but it doesn’t bother me at all.”

That nonchalant approach didn’t hurt Rodri’s campaign in 2024, when he pipped Vinícius Júnior to the Ballon d’Or.

The World Cup winner briefly crept back toward those heights during the summer in North America but had endured an underwhelming domestic campaign with Manchester City. Pep Guardiola himself warned that his former midfield totem would not be “the Rodri of before” until the World Cup. It remains to be seen if those six weeks were convincing enough to be crowned the best player of the entire year.

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This story was originally published September 16, 2026 at 6:30 AM.