The FIFA Golden Ball is awarded to the Player of the Tournament at each World Cup, a hugely prestigious individual accolade.
Ahead of this summer’s tournament, we’ve looked at the five favourites to win the 2026 FIFA World Cup Golden Ball.
Lionel Messi – Argentina (9/1)
Lionel Messi made history by winning the Golden Ball in 2022, becoming the first-ever two-time winner of the prize.
The Argentine ace had first won the Golden Ball in 2014 after helping the South Americans to the final, before earning a second accolade after World Cup success in Qatar.
Messi was phenomenal during that triumph, as the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner finally got his hands on the World Cup at his fifth attempt.
At 38, can he still replicate that level on the biggest stage of all? An incredible 90 goals and 51 assists in 104 games for Inter Miami, even at MLS level, suggests he can.
Lamine Yamal – Spain (15/2)
Lamine Yamal takes to the World Cup stage for the first time, having broken several records in Spain’s 2024 European Championship win.
It’s easy to forget that Yamal is still just 18 years old, such has been his level across the last two seasons. He’s already the undisputed talisman for club and country.
Kylian Mbappe – France (15/2)
With the FIFA World Cup Young Player Award (2018), Golden Boot (2022), and a winners’ medal (2018) already in the trophy cabinet, a World Cup Golden Ball looks the obvious omission from Mbappe’s CV.
He was perhaps a penalty shootout away from securing it and a second World Cup, with France in Qatar. Les Bleus’s captain will be out to right those wrongs.
Harry Kane – England (15/2)
Harry Kane headlines a talented England team that will travel to North America with the confidence to make an impression. The 32-year-old has been in phenomenal form for Bayern Munich during the club season, scoring a career-best 61 goals in 51 games.
England’s hopes rest largely upon his shoulders.
Michael Olise – France (11/2)
Even amid Kane’s explosive goal output in Germany, he was pipped to the Bundesliga’s Player of the Season award by teammate Michael Olise.
The Frenchman has evolved into one of the world’s finest footballers in Munich and will hope to cement that reputation at the World Cup this summer. A genuine game-changer in a France side full of them.
Read –Â The five favourites to win the 2026 World Cup Golden Boot
See more –Â World Cup 2026: Every squad list in full ahead of tournament
