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Ballon d’Or 2026: Ranking the Favorites to Win Men’s Club of the Year
Five teams are on the shortlist for the Ballon d’Or Men’s Club of the Year 2026, with the soccer’s equivalent of the Oscars set to take place in a grand ceremony in London on Oct. 26.
Organized by France Football, the glitzy awards ceremony has focussed on naming the best player of the past year for most of its near-70 year lifespan, but in 2021 a whole new raft of gongs were added in to pad out the evening’s entertainment.
Chelsea were the first Men’s Club of the Year winners, followed by back-to-back prizes for Manchester City. Real Madrid won in 2024, with Paris Saint-Germain the latest winners.
You may have already noticed a theme, with four of the five previous winners being the club that lifted the Champions League. Will that continue this season?
Here’s Sports Illustrated’s ranking of the five teams in the mix.
Ballon d’Or Award Shortlists
• Ballon d'Or Nominees (Men’s and Women's)
• Kopa Trophy Nominees (Men’s and Women’s
• Yashin Trophy Nominees (Men’s and Women’s Goalkeeper of the Year)
• Club of the Year Nominees (Men’s and Women’s
• Coach of the Year Nominees (Men’s and Women’s)
5. Bodø/Glimt
Achievements: Norwegian Cup winners, Champions League Round of 16
Let’s be completely honest with ourselves: one of these teams is not like the others.
However, while they have no real chance of winning Club of the Year, Bodø/Glimt’s nomination is fair recognition of a club operating so far from Europe traditional center of power that that they are much closer to Santa’s workshop than the Santiago Bernabéu.
The Arctic Circle underdogs, led by Kjetil Knutsen, beat Manchester City at home and then Atlético Madrid away to ensure qualification for the Champions League knockout phase playoffs for the first time in their history.
Perhaps most impressively, they then beat 2024–25 finalists Inter Milan home and away to reach the Round of 16.
4. Flamengo
Achievements: Copa Libertadores, Serie A, Campeonato Carioca
Flamengo have continued to make their case as one of the strongest clubs in world soccer outside Europe, building on an impressive run of success over the past year.
The Rio de Janeiro outfit claimed the 2025 Copa Libertadores title with a 1-0 victory over Palmeiras in last November’s final. They have maintained their momentum across competitions since then, even following Filipe Luís’s departure as head coach in March.
Although some of Flamengo’s recent achievements fall outside the Ballon d’Or’s judging period, the club remain firmly in contention to retain their Brazilian Serie A crown. They also reached the semifinals of the 2026 Copa Libertadores, where their campaign ended in a penalty shootout defeat to Argentina’s Estudiantes.
3. Arsenal
Achievements: Premier League, Champions League runners-up, Carabao Cup runners-up
Arsenal sauntered to the Premier League title in the end, losing just four games all season and maintaining a seven-point gap over Manchester City to end a wait of more than two decades for the right to call themselves England’s best club.
It has been an incredible effort from Mikel Arteta and the players to restore the Gunners as one of European soccer’s best and most feared clubs.
Depending on whether you’re a glass half-full or half-empty kind of person, the rest of Arsenal’s season can be viewed as either progress or disappointment, with the Gunners falling just short in both the Carabao Cup and Champions League finals.
2. Bayern Munich
Achievements: Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal
Bayern Munich went on a tear in 2025–26, topping the Bundesliga from Gameweek 1 all the way to the very end.
It feels like it should’ve been very boring, and it might’ve been if Vincent Kompany’s side weren’t so good to watch.
They lost just once on their way to the title, smashing the record for the most goals in a single season (122)—36 of which were scored by the irrepressible Harry Kane.
Bayern also stormed their way to the domestic cup and came close in the Champions League, but fell to Paris Saint-Germain in a barnstorming semifinal for the ages.
1. Paris Saint-Germain
Achievements: Ligue 1, Champions League, UEFA Super Cup, Intercontinental Cup
It would be a major surprise if PSG failed to win the Men’s Club of the Year award at the 2026 Ballon d’Or ceremony.
Luis Enrique’s side have enjoyed another remarkable run, becoming the only team outside Real Madrid to win consecutive Champions League titles in the competition’s modern era. Their European dominance has cemented their place among the game’s all-time greats.
PSG also cruised to another Ligue 1 crown, adding the Intercontinental Cup and UEFA Super Cup to an already impressive trophy collection.
Simply put, they have set the standard for club soccer over the past year and should comfortably take home the award.
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Andy Headspeath is a Real Madrid correspondent for Sports Illustrated FC. Originally from the UK, the weather, culture and soccer lured him to Spain over a decade ago where he lives with his wife, son and two untrainable dogs. A player of unspeakably limited talents and only one fully functional knee, he has more than a decade's experience in a wide variety of editorial roles within sports media, from match reporting to in-depth feature writing and interviews. He specializes in soccer history and culture, as well as—of course—La Liga.
Barnaby Lane, better known as Barney, is a soccer writer for SI FC. With nearly a decade of experience in the industry, he has worked for a range of household-name publications in both the United States and the United Kingdom, and has interviewed some of the world’s biggest athletes—from Usain Bolt and Rafael Nadal to Christian Pulisic (though his favorite interview remains Adebayo Akinfenwa). Barney specializes in Premier League soccer, covering everything from the nostalgia of years gone by to the modern, vastly different landscape of today’s game. He also has experience reporting on La Liga and Major League Soccer, the latter of which he developed a particular affinity for during his university days at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.