Ballon d’Or 2026: why this year’s ceremony is in London, not Paris

On Monday night, for the first time in six years, the Ballon d’Or ceremony will not be held in Paris. The name of the 2026 winner will be revealed at the London Palladium, in the Soho district. The previous six ceremonies were all held at the Théâtre du Châtelet in central Paris, and the last one crowned Ousmane Dembélé in 2025.

Seventy years after Stanley Matthews

Why London? Two reasons, both given by France Football, the weekly magazine of the L’Équipe group that awards the trophy and now stages the ceremony jointly with UEFA. The first, and the most emphasised, is the calendar: 2026 marks 70 years since the first award, and its first winner was English. Stanley Matthews, then a Blackpool player, was crowned at 41 and remains the oldest winner in the trophy’s history. The second: “the international dimension” the event has taken on.

A move that has happened before

The Ballon d’Or has left Paris before: the ceremony was held in Zurich, Switzerland, between 2010 and 2015, during the partnership with FIFA. And the move to London has “nothing to do” with Harry Kane, one of the leading favourites for this year’s award, RMC Sport points out.

“A circumstantial and temporary choice, even if the international dimension taken by this prestigious trophy suggests the experience could be repeated somewhere other than France in the coming years,” France Football said, as reported by RMC Sport.

For French football, the evening comes doubled: PSG host Lyon at the Parc des Princes from 8.30pm French time (7.30pm UK), a switch ordered by the Paris police prefecture that lands right on top of the London ceremony.