The Ballon d’Or is back, with familiar faces nominated and some of the most notable missing: Aitana Bonmatí, the three-time winner who has won it for the last three seasons, was not mentioned because she was off the pitch, injured, from November 2025 to May. So, for the first time since 2021, we will have a different winner.
A brand-new shortlist for Women's Coach of the Year, with none of last year's five nominees making the cut this time around.
It is no surprise that the club dominating the shortlist, as every season before, is the team that wins the Champions League: Barcelona, with eight members of that winning squad among the 30 nominees.
Esmee Brugts, Cata Coll, Caroline Graham Hansen, Patri Guijarro, Mapi León, Ewa Pajor, Claudia Pina and Alexia Putellas are all in contention after Barcelona added another Champions League triumph to their collection of domestic honours.
This season's success for theCatalann team is not just down to one player who is the overwhelming favourite but more so an open race.
Putellas is arguably the most obvious Barcelona contender. The two-time winner returned to the centre of the Ballon d’Or conversation after another outstanding campaign, scoring 26 goals and providing 15 assists across 53 appearances while helping Barcelona win the Champions League, Liga F, Copa de la Reina and Spanish Super Cup.
But she faces competition from teammates who produced exceptional individual numbers.
Pajor scored 34 goals in 46 matches, while Pina scored 32 in 54 appearances. Graham Hansen contributed 17 goals and 16 assists, and Brugts added 13 goals and 11 assists.
The legitimacy of the outcome has been questioned: Bonmatí won it last year but lost two finals in the Champions League and Euros, and still won, but others who won more and likely had a more direct impact on those finals, like Mariona Caldentey or Alessia Russo, did not win. This makes some fans wonder who makes these choices and whether they actually follow the sport, or if they chose Bonmatí because of her name and reputation rather than what she achieved that season.
The likely frontrunner is two-time winner Alexia Putellas, not only as a household name but a generational talent, but it feels other players have more of a stake to claim on this coveted award.
Pajor's 34 goals, Pina's 32 and Graham Hansen's combination of 17 goals and 16 assists all provide alternative arguments. The voting criteria emphasise individual performances as well as team achievements, meaning Barcelona's collective success does not automatically decide which of their players deserves the prize.
England's hopes are not as strong as last season, as only Alessia Russo and Alex Greenwood are nominated. Russo scored 29 goals and nine assists in 50 appearances, but did not come away with the Champions League; if she couldn't win it with a Euro, the Champions League doesn't stand much chance this year, whereas last year she finished third.
Greenwood captained her club to the WSL trophy for the first time in ten years and an FA Cup victory. Still, as a defender, and with an award that reflects individual achievement and has historically gone to goalscorers, it's unlikely for her too.
City have four players on the shortlist in total, with Greenwood joined by Khadija Shaw, Vivianne Miedema, Kerstin Casparij and Yui Hasegawa.
Among City's nominees, Shaw has perhaps the clearest statistical case.
The Jamaican striker scored 36 goals and supplied 10 assists across 36 appearances, while City won the WSL and FA Cup.
Her numbers place her firmly among the most prolific forwards on the shortlist and give her a compelling individual argument alongside the collective success of her club.
Miedema also had a productive campaign, scoring 18 goals in 30 appearances, while Yui Hasegawa's importance came through her control and influence in midfield.
The nominations underline the depth of City's successful campaign, rather than relying on a single star.
Caroline Weir is included after an impressive season split between Real Madrid and OL Lyonnes, scoring 32 goals and providing 13 assists in 50 matches.
Pernille Harder scored 35 goals for Bayern Munich, while Tessa Wullaert registered 29 goals and 15 assists across her campaign with Inter Milan and Como.
Their inclusion highlights a central tension in Ballon d'Or voting: whether individual production should outweigh team success.
Neither Weir nor Wullaert collected a major club trophy according to the nomination data, while Harder won the Bundesliga, German Cup and German Super Cup.
That creates different cases for voters to weigh against players such as Putellas, Russo and Shaw, whose seasons combined individual production with major trophies.
The 30-player shortlist also reflects women's football's expanding global reach.
Barbra Banda represents Zambia and Orlando Pride, while Temwa Chawinga has been nominated after another prolific campaign with Kansas City Current.
Scarlett Camberos represents Mexico after a standout season with Club América, while Lorena gives Kansas City Current a second nominee.
Japan's Yui Hasegawa and Momoko Tanikawa, Haiti's Melchie Dumornay, Malawi's Chawinga, and Belgium's Wullaert also have nominations.
The geographical spread matters because the Women's Ballon d'Or is still a relatively young award. Unlike the men's prize, which dates back to 1956, the women's award was only introduced in 2018.
The winner is determined through a vote by journalists and awarded by France Football. A panel initially selects the 30 official nominees. Journalists from the top 50 FIFA-ranked nations then select their top 10 players and award points according to their ranking.
The voting considers three broad areas: individual performances and decisive character, team achievements, and class and fair play.
One notable difference in the voting is that 50 journalists from the highest-ranked nations vote for the women's award, rather than the 100 used for the men's prize.
A long-running debate concerns the importance given to team success. A player can have an outstanding individual season but be disadvantaged if their club or country does not win the biggest trophies.
The voting process itself is another source of debate. Journalists decide the winner rather than players, coaches or former professionals, while some question whether an individual award can ever fully capture a sport built around collective performance.
The winner will be announced in London on 26 October, marking the first time the Ballon d'Or ceremony has been held in the UK capital.
The venue has symbolic significance, as the event celebrates its 70th anniversary. Sir Stanley Matthews, the first-ever Ballon d'Or winner in 1956, links the award's origins to its 2026 ceremony.
Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Club América, Manchester City and OL Lyonnes are nominated for Women's Club of the Year.
The Women's Coach of the Year shortlist includes Barcelona's Pere Romeu, OL Lyonnes' Jonatan Giráldez, Manchester City's Andree Jeglertz, Japan's Nils Nielsen and BK Häcken's Elena Sadiku.
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