The Striker of the Year category, introduced to the Ballon d’Or to give dedicated recognition to the game’s most clinical finishers, produced two winners at the 2026 ceremony whose cases for the award could not have been more different in character, and more straightforward in outcome.
Harry Kane: The Double
For Harry Kane, the Men’s Striker of the Year award is the companion piece to a night that will define his legacy. He won the main men’s Ballon d’Or. He won the Striker of the Year. The two prizes together reflect a season of 73 goals and 8 assists in 65 appearances, the European Golden Shoe as the top scorer across all of Europe’s top divisions, and six World Cup goals on the way to England’s first World Cup final since 1966.
There was no realistic candidate for the Men’s Striker of the Year other than Kane. Erling Haaland finished in the men’s top 10, but Kane’s 73 goals against Haaland’s output made the case straightforward. The Striker of the Year category rewards the player who did the thing strikers are supposed to do more purely and more prolifically than anyone else. Kane did that by a distance this year.
Winning both awards in the same evening, in his own country, on the stage of the London Palladium, is the kind of night that takes a career from excellent to legendary. Kane has been excellent for a long time. Now the trophies confirm it.
Charlyn Corral: A Historic Win
Charlyn Corral’s Women’s Striker of the Year award is the kind of recognition that carries significance beyond the ceremony itself. The Mexican international is one of the most prolific strikers in women’s club football and has carried that reputation into major tournament competition with the Mexican national team.
Her Striker of the Year award makes her one of the most decorated Mexican players at the Ballon d’Or, at a ceremony where the awards on the women’s side were otherwise dominated by Spain and FC Barcelona. Corral’s win represents a different thread in the evening’s story: the individual excellence that cuts through collective dominance and earns its own recognition.
The Women’s Striker of the Year award recognises the same thing as its men’s equivalent. The striker who scored the most, in the biggest games, across the reference period. Corral’s haul across club and international football made her the clear choice for the voters who assessed the category.
The Gerd Muller Trophy
The Striker of the Year award is sometimes referred to in connection with the Gerd Muller Trophy, the prize previously awarded by the Ballon d’Or organisation to the top scorer. The 2026 ceremony confirmed the award under its current structure, with Kane and Corral as the separate men’s and women’s recipients.
For Kane, the award is another piece of hardware from a night that will be replayed for the rest of his career. For Corral, it is the biggest individual recognition of a career spent being excellent in places the European football media does not always look.
Sources: CBS Sports live updates