The full set of criteria every Ballon d'Or voter must follow - and how much each one really matters

The 2026 men's and women's Ballon d'Or winners will be crowned at a special ceremony at the London Palladium on Monday - and each of the 150 assigned voters will have followed a strict set of criteria when deciding on their top 10.

Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe and Lamine Yamal are all vying to win the men's prize for what would be the first time in each of their respective careers, while Alexia Putellas is the favourite to win the women's award for a record-equalling third time.

For the men's award, 100 different judges - one journalist from each of the top 100 FIFA nations - will decide the winner through their votes, while one journalist from each of the top 50 FIFA nations will decide the women's award. But it isn't necessarily as simple as you might think to compile a top 10 - in theory, anyway.

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Ballon d'Or criteria explained

The Ballon d'Or is awarded to the best player from the past 12 months, based upon a wide range of criteria.

Article 4 of the Ballon d'Or's regulations states that jurors must base their vote on three criteria, ranked in order of importance.

And while it is 'individual performances, decisive and impressive character' that naturally makes up the most important piece of criteria, jurors are then told to rank their top 10 based on 'collective performances and titles won' as the next most important factor.

Finally, if there is nothing to split certain players in the first two criteria, 'class and fair play' can then come into the equation. There are a range of criteria used to judge this - sportsmanship, respect towards opponents and team-mates, and on-field attitudes are all considered.

And voters must also discard anything a player does after the date of July 19, 2026. Yamal, for instance, has scored 10 goals and provided 10 assists in 13 games in all competitions for Barcelona this season, but that does not matter at all when it comes to the Ballon d'Or. The time period ends with the 2026 World Cup final, which took place on July 19.

From there, each of the top 10 players in a vote is given a certain amount of points. It goes up in increments of one - starting from one - from 10th place to sixth, before seven points for fifth and eight points for fourth.

Third place will net 10 points, second place 12 points, and first place 15 points.

There is, of course, the possibility of a tie. William Saliba and Sadio Mane were tied for 29th in the men's award, while three players - Catalina Coll, Vivianne Miedema and Melvine Malard - were all tied for 28th in the women's award.

There is no tiebreaker in place for the lower rankings.

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Ballon d'Or tiebreaker rules and how they work

Should any player be tied at the top of the rankings after all the votes are submitted, then organisers France Football would use a tiebreaker system to decide who is crowned the winner of the 2026 men's or women's Ballon d'Or award.

Players are separated by the number of times they were voted in first place out of the 100, or 50, votes, with the number of second-placed finishes being used if there is still a tie - with this continuing until a winner is confirmed.

The Ballon d'Or voting rules have changed in recent years, with every worldwide player having only been eligible to win the award since 2007. Prior to then, it was only open to any player playing with a European club, and before 1995, only European players full stop.

And France Football decided to scrap a rule that existed between 2007 and 2015 which stated that every captain and manager of a FIFA-recognised nation could submit their vote.