UEFA has confirmed that the 70th Ballon d'Or ceremony will be held in London on October 26, moving the game’s most watched individual prize to English soil for the first time. The switch gives the 2026 Ballon d'Or a new setting without changing the sense of occasion that has long surrounded the award.
The move is drawing attention now because the date is fixed and the host city is new. Harry Kane, whose 61 goals and seven assists in 51 appearances for Bayern Munich helped him collect the Bundesliga, the DFB-Pokal and the European Golden Shoe, is among the names already being weighed in the wider awards race, while Lamine Yamal and Ousmane Dembele also sit close to the center of it after a season that has kept the Ballon d'Or conversation moving.
The ceremony will be staged with France Football in the third year of its strategic partnership with UEFA, which has co-organised the gala since 2024. That partnership is what now carries the event away from a prize traditionally associated with Paris and into London, in a venue change that nods to the award’s history while widening its stage.
The choice also ties the 70th edition back to Sir Stanley Matthews, the inaugural winner in 1956, as the ceremony moves in a direction no Ballon d'Or gala has taken before. The award’s modern cast remains crowded: Ousmane Dembele enters the men's race as the current holder, Aitana Bonmati will defend the women’s prize, and Lamine Yamal comes in as last year’s runner-up after scoring 24 goals and providing 18 assists in 45 appearances for Barcelona, along with a La Liga title.
What has not been released yet is the shortlist itself. The nominations for the men’s Ballon d'Or, women’s Ballon d'Or, Kopa Trophy and Yashin Trophy are expected before the ceremony, but no date has been set, leaving the final shape of the Paris-to-London shift to be filled in over the months ahead. Lionel Messi remains the most decorated player in the award’s history with eight titles, a record that still frames every new edition even as the gala finds a different city to host it.
For readers tracking the build-up, the venue change is already confirmed in the clearest possible way: the 2026 Ballon D'or London confirmation for October 26 means the sport now knows where the spotlight will fall, even if the shortlist that fills that stage is still to come.
