Ballon d’Or 2026: updates from 70th edition in London – live

I can’t for the life of me get on board with the line we’re now hearing: had Argentina somehow snaffled the World Cup, the award would have to be Messi’s. He’s still got plenty, of course, but a stuffy set-piece goal, say, or a 0-0 and penalty triumph wouldn’t have somehow made him the best in the world. It’s not a lifetime achievement award.

Talking of UK winners, it’s absolutely insane to think that, in 1968, three winners – Denis Law, Bobby Charlton and George Best – played in the same Manchester United team. Now, though, despite the money in the Premier League and with the exception of Erling Haaland and Bruno Fernandes, the best attackers are found in La Liga and Ligue 1. That looks likely to change only in the next generation and only if English clubs develop their own elite talent

DAZN have just interviewed Michael Owen, since the sad death of Kevin Keegan the only surviving British winner. If I’m honest, he did pretty well to get that, which isn’t to decry his efforts – in Rome and Cardiff especially – but the best player in the world? Not for me, Clive.

There appears to have been a leak: on the Ballon d’Or website, there’ve been articles lauding Kane, Mbappé and Lamine. That won’t surprise anyone, but of course the order is what really matters.

“Team PSG, Manager Luis Enrique, Ballon D’Or Harry Kane,” reckons Krishnamoorthy V. “Have Real Madrid decided to be present this year?”

Isn’t is sweet of them?

Lamine will, we have to assume, win the young player away for the third time on the spin. I think we can confidently say he was the best 16-year-old we’ve ever seen though, once he turned 17, Pelé had him beat.

Why, then, am I not going for Kane, seeing as you don’t ask. It’s a strange one given he’s the best finisher from 12-22 yards I’ve ever seen, and has reinvented his position, a prolific goalscorer but also a playmaker. However throughout his career, he’s not quite done it in the biggest games, and I just can’t anoint him the planet’s best for this season when he couldn’t get it done in the closing stages of either World Cup or Champions League – again. Killing the Bundesliga in by far its best team, even without him, and a brace against DR Congo, just isn’t enough, and ultimately, that’s why I’m going for Lamine – though, if you asked me who I think the best player in the world is, I’d probably say Mbappé, just.

So who should win? In the women’s competition, I’m going for the wondrous Alexia Putellas; I’m not sure many will argue to the contrary.

The men’s competition is a harder choice. I can’t decide between Kylian Mbappé and Lamine Yamal, but I’m going for Lamine because he inspired Barcelona to the title and was easily the better of the two in the World Cup semi; in third, I’d go for Michael Olise, but I’m sure Harry Kane will be on the podium.

Should anyone fancy learning even more about Sir Stan, here’s a piece about him and the nature of heroism.

So who’s going to win? Well, first things first: the ceremony is being held in London to honour Stanley Matthews, who won the debut award 70 years ago.

One of the things we love about football is that, in a fickle world of questions, it offers us definitive answers. The best team in the league is the team which wins the league; in order to be certain who deserves to win a match, we’ve devised a handy metric to tell us, known as the score; and should we ever be unsure as to what silly haircut we should have next, what histrionic we should practise, or how best to flout authority, the beautiful game will surely supply us with an answer.

The Ballon d’Or, though, is a different state of affairs. Though the game offers us no parameters for judgment, it being a team sport, often it’s obvious which players have been the world’s best over a season. On other occasions, though, it’s a matter of criteria and opinion, which is where we find ourselves this evening.

But this term, we’ve no outstanding candidate on either men’s or women’s side, which allows us to enjoy plenty of conjecture and opinion, deconstructing this wonderful thing of ours to examine its constituent parts. Are we honouring the best or the most effective? Should we be looking for reliability or inspiration, impact or output, consistent excellence or big-game decisiveness? The next few hours will tell us what one journalist from each of the top 100 countries in the Fifa rankings think but, something else we love about football is that whenever decision is made and whatever it is, there’ll always be people desperate to tell those responsible why they’re wrong. Let’s do it!

Showtime: 7pm GMT