Harry Kane is the favorite to win the Ballon d'Or as the award nears
Bayern Munich teammate Dayot Upamecano compared Kane to Kylian Mbappe ahead of Monday's ceremony in London, where Kane could become the first Englishman to win since 2001.
Why Harry Kane is trending
Harry Kane is trending because the men's Ballon d'Or will be handed out in London on Monday, and the Bayern Munich and England striker is the favorite to win it. Bleacher Report's final 2026 rankings, published Oct. 23, call this year's race unusually open with no clear front-runner, but the outlet still lists Kane at the top of the list.
The search spike also traces to Dayot Upamecano, Kane's Bayern Munich teammate and a France international, who weighed in on the award this weekend. Asked to compare Kane with his French national team teammate Kylian Mbappe, Upamecano is one of the few people in the world positioned as a club teammate to one finalist and a national team teammate to the other.
What Upamecano said
Speaking to Gianluca DiMarzio, Upamecano declined to pick a favorite between the two. He credited Kane's versatility, saying "Harry can play as a defender, a midfielder and a striker," and called it "an honor to be able to play alongside him."
On Mbappe, Upamecano said the French forward "is incredibly fast and knows how to score goals." He said the two strikers are different kinds of players but share one trait, the desire to score in every game, and wished them both well ahead of Monday's result.
Kane's case for the award
Bleacher Report first ranked the Ballon d'Or race in July, right after the World Cup. By the October update, Ousmane Dembele, Jude Bellingham and Michael Olise had all dropped out of serious contention. Kane held the top spot in both versions of the ranking.
A win Monday would make Kane the first Englishman to take the Ballon d'Or since Michael Owen won it in 2001. Some observers point to England's run at the World Cup as the strongest part of Kane's case, even as Bleacher Report still rates Mbappe among the sport's premier strikers.
Who else is in the running
Bleacher Report's rankings put Spain's Rodri sixth. Rodri won the Golden Ball as the World Cup's best player and had been rated fourth by B/R back in July, before a long recovery from an ACL injury had slowed his form. He was out of Ballon d'Or consideration before the tournament, then became central to Spain's title run, with Spain allowing only five Opta-defined big chances across their eight World Cup matches.
Georgian winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia sits fifth in the new rankings despite being unranked back in July, a jump Bleacher Report ties partly to his form since a serious injury he suffered while playing in Paris. Both players, along with Kane and Mbappe, remain the names most mentioned ahead of Monday's ceremony in London.
Facts per Yahoo Sports, Bleacher Report. Opinion is the taproom's.