Kane ends England's 25-year Ballon d'Or wait

BREAKING: Harry Kane wins the 2026 Ballon d'Or, becoming the first English player crowned the world's best since Michael Owen in 2001.

Harry Kane is the best footballer on the planet. Officially.

The Ballon d'Or went to an Englishman tonight in London, and the last time that sentence was true, Michael Owen had frosted tips and it was 2001. Twenty five years of waiting, ended by a 33 year old who scored 61 goals in 51 club games last season. Sixty one. That's the most any Bayern Munich player has ever managed in a single campaign, and Bayern once employed Gerd Muller and Robert Lewandowski. Add England duty and it's 73 goals in 65 matches.

Here he is in that red shirt, doing the thing he does more than anyone alive.

And the part I love most. He won it without the World Cup and without the Champions League, losing both semi-finals. The voters basically said, the trophies didn't show up, but you did, 73 times. Sometimes the numbers are just too loud to ignore.

This is Liu Yang, reporting for HIT.