Can Kane buck history and win Ballon d'Or? — SkimNews
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- Harry Kane is the bookmakers' favourite for the Ballon d'Or after scoring 73 goals for club and country this season — 61 for Bayern Munich and 12 for England, with Bayern winning the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal and England finishing third at the World Cup
- Kane's tally ranks second only to Lionel Messi's 82-goal 2011-12 season among players from Europe's top five leagues in a single campaign, surpassing Gerd Muller's 72 (1972-73), Cristiano Ronaldo's 66 (2011-12 and 2014-15), Haaland's 64 (2022-23) and Luis Suarez's 64 (2015-16)
- Bayern Munich's Champions League campaign ended in the semi-finals against eventual winners Paris St-Germain, meaning Kane cannot match the continental-club success that helped Luka Modric (2018) and Cristiano Ronaldo (2014) win the award
- Rodri, the reigning Ballon d'Or winner, is Kane's strongest rival after claiming the World Cup Golden Ball while helping Spain lift a second world title, with teenage Barcelona duo Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsi also in contention
- Kylian Mbappe finished as World Cup top scorer with 10 goals and won both the Champions League Golden Boot and La Liga scoring title, while Lionel Messi captained Argentina to a second successive World Cup final and scored eight tournament goals at age 39
- History strongly favours major-trophy winners, with 15 of the previous 19 Ballon d'Or recipients lifting the World Cup, Champions League, European Championship or Copa America in their winning year — leaving Kane to buck the pattern
- If Kane prevails, he would become only the fifth Englishman to win the Ballon d'Or after Matthews, Charlton, Keegan and Owen, and the first player representing a Bundesliga club since Matthias Sammer in 1996
Why it matters: The Ballon d'Or shortlist is announced Tuesday and voting goes to an international jury of specialized journalists, one per country from the men's top 100. Should Kane win, he'd become only the fifth Englishman to claim the award — after Matthews, Charlton, Keegan and Owen — and the first Bundesliga-based player since Matthias Sammer in 1996, with voters now weighing whether the most prolific individual season since Messi's 82-goal 2011-12 outweighs Rodri's World Cup triumph.
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