CIES ranking puts Yamal top for 2026 Ballon d'Or

canalplus.com (French) —

The CIES Football Observatory has published its own ranking for the 2026 Ballon d'Or, placing Lamine Yamal first, ahead of the official ceremony scheduled for Monday evening in London. The statistical ranking, based on performance, match level, and results, places Bayern Munich's Michael Olise and Harry Kane on the podium, with Lionel Messi in fourth. Paris Saint-Germain's Désiré Doué is fifth despite not being nominated, while defending winner Ousmane Dembélé ranks only 27th. Other notable positions include Jude Bellingham at 39th and Fabián Ruiz at 32nd. The list features several non-nominated players, such as Pedri and Pau Cubarsí, alongside unexpected entries like Nico Paz and Ibrahim Maza.


With a significance score of 1, this news ranks in the top 64% of today's 32433 analyzed articles.

Get summaries of news with significance over 5.5 (usually ~10 stories per week). Read by 10,000+ subscribers: