Ballon d'Or Winner Betting Odds 2026

A Look at the 2026 Ballon d’Or Favourites

Even though the event will take place in late September, there are already a few odds favourites to win the Ballon d'Or 2026. As the voters are told to base their pick on the previous season, the Ballon d'Or battle is indeed in full swing and as you can see above, there are two that stand out from the rest: Ousmane Dembele, Lamine Yamal. However, the other candidates are difficult to separate.

So, what should you expect from this battle? Let's go through them one by one, starting with the current odds favourite Dembele.

Ousmane Dembele

As this is being written, Ousmane Dembele has the chance to complete a prophecy of such. In the early days of his career, the sky seemed to be the limit and when Barcelona paid £100 million, the Frenchman was supposed to be the future of the Blaugrana.

However, it never was the case. Instead, his time in Spain was filled with problems. That didn't stop PSG from taking a gamble on him, and this year he has launched himself back into stardom.

The Parisian outfit, at the time of writing, are favourites to win the Champions League final in May, and he has spearheaded their charge - scoring eight times and assisting his teammates four times.

Dembele has finally reached the level that many hoped and expected he would. So, a Champions League trophy, which would be a crowning moment in itself, could also bring a Ballon d'Or.

A beautiful footballing story indeed.

Lamine Yamal

This section can be moved around for the next 15 years (we hope), with the Spaniard looking like football's next best thing. On every occasion of watching Yamal, the winger is beautiful and brilliant.

Barcelona have had to wait for an heir to Lionel Messi, and once it was hoped to be Dembele. It is clear now that it is Yamal. At 17 years old, the starlet has already won La Liga, progressed to the latter stages of the Champions League and won the European Championship (last summer).

He is very much the future of Spanish football and Barcelona, so we will be putting his name here regularly in the years to come, certainly. For Yamal, there will be no qualms if he does not win the trophy here. After all, he'll be back next year probably, and the next, and the next...

The Others

There are two clear frontrunners here and it seems, at this stage, that the trophy will go to one of the listed duo. However, things could change in the next few weeks, indeed.

Mo Salah is the third favourite at around the 8/1 mark, but winning a Premier League probably won't be enough, even with his goal tally being accounted for. Raphinha also comes in at this price, but if anyone from Barcelona is to win it, you'd imagine it would be Lamal.

Two prices that we're very intrigued by, though, are Gianluigi Donnarumma and Lautaro Martinez.

Starting with Donnarumma, the Italian has been magnificent for PSG and is probably the best goalkeeper in the world at this point in time. Proving reliable in their games so far this season, if the Parisians are to win the Champions League - thanks to another big performance from him - you could see him winning the trophy.

The same could be said for Lautaro Martinez, who is currently listed around the 10/1 mark. It has not been his best campaign in Serie A, scoring the second-fewest amount of goals of his Italian career.

However, he has scored nine times in the Champions League so far, and if the Nerazzurri pull off a double - which would certainly be unexpected - then his odds would shoot near the top two.