England captain Harry Kane was crowned the world’s best player at the 2026 Ballon d’Or ceremony in London and also took the Gerd Müller Trophy for the season’s top scorer, after a prolific 2025-26 campaign for Bayern Munich and England.
Kane, 33, scored 73 goals for club and country last season. The Gerd Müller win makes him only the second player to claim that award twice, and the only one to do so with more than 70 goals.
Lionel Messi is the only player to have scored more goals than Harry Kane in a single season. Messi set the all-time record with 82 goals in 2011–12, while Kane scored 73 goals across all competitions for club and country in 2025–26.
At the club level alone, Messi scored 73 goals for Barcelona in 2011–12 and Gerd Müller scored 66 for Bayern Munich in 1972–73, compared to Kane’s 61 club goals.
Trophies with Bayern
Kane helped Bayern win another Bundesliga title. The German champions also took the DFB-Pokal and the Franz Beckenbauer Supercup.
World Cup form
For England, Kane was just as lethal at the 2026 World Cup, scoring six goals in seven appearances as the Three Lions finished third. He sat out the third-place match against France, when he could have added to his total.
History of the scorer’s award
The trophy, named after German great Gerd Müller, has been awarded since 2021 to the player who scores the most goals in a single campaign. Its first winner, under the name Striker of the Year, was Robert Lewandowski, who retained it in 2022 with 57 goals.
Erling Haaland won in 2023 after scoring 56 goals as Manchester City completed a historic treble. In 2024 Kane and Kylian Mbappé shared the award, each with 52 goals. Only Kane travelled to Paris to collect it, as Mbappé and Real Madrid boycotted the ceremony.
Viktor Gyökeres won in 2025 after a career-best season at Sporting CP, scoring 63 goals for the Portuguese club and Sweden, which earned him a move to Arsenal.
