The Ballon d’Or is everything football shouldn’t be. Thank goodness for Harry Kane

October 27, 2026 — 3:52pm

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

No gift articles left

You've used all of your gift articles. 3 more will become available on the 1st of every month.

Thank goodness for Harry Kane.

After a painful evening of manufactured suspense, chaotic organisation and ultra cringe, football’s most prestigious individual award was rescued by a man who embodies the opposite of everything the Ballon d’Or has come to represent: humility, class, and old-fashioned decency.

Kane, 33, was a thoroughly deserving winner. He has scored 89 goals for club and country since last August, in that time captaining England to third-place at the World Cup and steering Bayern Munich to the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League and another Bundesliga title.

When he finally took the stage, Kane’s speech was a refreshing tonic. He thanked his teammates, coaches and family, his former club Tottenham Hotspur, gave an inspirational message to young boys and girls about the importance of hard work, and singled out his wife as a partner in his success: “It is something we can celebrate, not me. We’re a team.”

Kane became the first English player to receive the honour, voted on by one journalist from each of the top 100 countries on FIFA’s world rankings, since Michael Owen in 2001.

Owen, as it happens, was interviewed on the red carpet beforehand by a reporter who asked him what his best finish was,........

© The Age