Ballon d'Or points revealed: Harry Kane beat Mbappe by just 28 points
At the Ballon d'Or ceremony held on Monday, this year's award went to Bayern Munich and England forward Harry Kane. He finished ahead of stars such as Kylian Mbappe, Lamine Yamal, Rodri and Lionel Messi. Organisers France Football published the voting points on Saturday, and they show that the contest between the top two was one of the closest in the award's history.
Kane's nearest rival was French star Mbappe. The English forward won by just 28 points over Mbappe. Before France Football published the points on Saturday, a French media outlet had released the full voting results on Friday, showing how intense the competition between the two forwards had been.
According to the points list, Kane received 40 first-place votes and a total of 1,055 points. Runner-up Mbappe received 23 first-place votes and 1,027 points in total. According to French media, this is the fourth-closest voting margin in the award's 70-year history. In 2019, Lionel Messi had beaten Virgil van Dijk by just seven points.
The award is decided by a jury of 100 international journalists. Under the points system, a first-place vote is worth 15 points, second place 12, third place 10, and the remaining places in the top ten are worth 8, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 points respectively.
Third-placed Lamine Yamal finished a further 146 points behind Mbappe, receiving 13 first-place votes. The World Cup winners' votes were split — Yamal's team-mate Rodri came fourth with 726 points and 10 first-place votes.
The top ten of the men's Ballon d'Or points list is: 1. Harry Kane 1,055 points, 2. Kylian Mbappe 1,027, 3. Lamine Yamal 881, 4. Rodri 726, 5. Lionel Messi 612, 6. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia 541, 7. Ousmane Dembele 418, 8. Erling Haaland 378, 9. Michael Olise 296 and 10. Fabian Ruiz 201.
