Ballon d’Or: Harry Kane a balanced choice, but where are the trophies?

The morning after Harry Kane ended a 25-year wait for a British footballer to win the Ballon d’Or after Michael Owen, the strains of criticism—if any—have been surprisingly muted. And this itself is a vindication that the honour has gone to a deserving candidate despite the presence of a Kylian Mbappe or Lamine Yamal among the three top shortlisted nominees.

There is a degree of another-day-in-the-office kind of body language in Kane, the England captain and a talismanic goalgetter for Bayern Munich for three seasons now, which often has him flying under the radar. The 33-year-old may not have the aura or excitement brought about by a Mbappe or Yamal, but has shown a remarkable work ethic and phenomenal consistency in terms of finding the net for both his club and country with 73 goals from 65 matches in the past season.

The weight of statistics is often irrefutable even in a sport like football—when one considers that only Leo Messi has scored more goals in a season (2011-12) with an aggregate of 82. There was a time when the hegemony of Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo over the Ballon d’Or trophy made it quite a predictable and tedious exercise even till a few years back—for reasons not difficult to gauge. This has possibly given way to some interesting choices in recent years like the Spanish midfield general Rodri (2024) or French winger Ousmane Dembele (2025) and now Kane.

A new benchmark of consistency seems to be the calling card though there could be a debate as to whether a player’s impact in a marquee tournament like FIFA World Cup, Euro Championship or Champions League should provide the last word. Mind you, a decorated player like Mbappe is yet to win the definitive honour despite making it to the shortlist a staggering nine times with the best-ever finish of a second spot this year. Yamal, now 18, may have had a quiet World Cup after coming back from injury but there is no doubt that his presence helped Luis de la Fuente’s (named best coach last night) men build pressure on the rivals during Spain’s heady campaign.

An outsider like Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, the Georgian who finished sixth in the Ballon d’Or race, may have been outstanding for Paris Saint-Germain in their back-to-back Champions League triumphs— but faded out in the final reckoning presumably as he did not make the cut to play the World Cup.

Now that Kane has landed the definite award for being the best footballer for the season, with a knighthood possibly waiting round the corner, he needs to walk that extra mile to add a major continental or global title to his glittering profile for the club or country.

For a striker as complete as he is, Kane has repeatedly suffered frustration when glory has been within touching distance. He has seen England suffer defeats in the final of two European Championships and his club in a Champions League final, and Kane did not not manage to score a single goal in them.

Hence, the criticism attributed to Kane for much of his career has been that he has not delivered on the biggest stage and that his goal tallies have not translated into trophy hauls. He won the Bundesliga and the German Cup last season but that point still very much remains.

Had he dragged Bayern to the Champions League or England to the World Cup, the Ballon d’Or voting would surely have been a landslide. In the last World Cup for example, he netted six goals but couldn’t close out the all-important grudge semi-final against Argentina.

Well, time is certainly running out on England’s goal machine to try and build on this prestigious honour!