MANCHESTER, England (AP) — The Ballon d'Or winners will be announced on Monday with a new generation of soccer stars, led by Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappé, ready to stamp their name on the trophy that for so long was a personal duel between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Messi, of course, is still in the running for soccer's top individual prize at the age of 39 after his outstanding performances at the World Cup. And while it feels like this is the start of the Yamal-Mbappé era, Harry Kane's outrageous goalscoring exploits could yet push that rivalry back by another year.
The women's award, won by Barcelona and Spain star Aitana Bonmati for the past three years, will go to someone else this time around. Bonmati is not on the shortlist after breaking her leg in December.
Two-time winner Alexia Putellas is the favorite to lift the trophy for a third time.
Here's what to know about the Ballon d'Or.
The ceremony will be staged at the London Palladium on Monday Oct. 26, at 2000 GMT.
Of the 30-man shortlist for the men's award, four names have dominated the conversation.
Yamal, Mbappé, Kane and Messi are the favorites to lift the prize won last year by Ousmane Dembélé.
Yamal was named the best young player for the last two years and after helping Spain to the World Cup and Barcelona to the Spanish title, he looks well-placed to win his first Ballon d'Or.
Mbappé was long-expected to be confirmed the best player in the world before now, having won the 2018 World Cup at the age of 19. But, if anything, he has been slipping down the Ballon d'Or rankings, coming seventh last year.
He had an outstanding season individually last term, even becoming the highest scorer in World Cup history, but did not lead Real Madrid or France to trophies. That could work against him.
The opposite is true of Kane, who has been breaking goalscoring records in Germany and winning titles with Bayern Munich. He was also one of the top performers at the World Cup as England finished third.
Many might have expected Messi to leave the Ballon d'Or conversation after moving to MLS and Inter Miami., but the Argentine, who is widely regarded as the greatest player of all time, clearly had other ideas.
He inspired Miami to its first MLS Cup last season and then rolled back the years to drive Argentina to within one win of back-to-back World Cups. Ultimately Argentina came up short in the final against Spain, but the tournament was undoubtedly lit up by Messi's brilliance once again.
Putellas is favorite to win the women's award after returning to her best to win the Champions League and Spanish title with Barcelona before joining London City Lionesses.
The Spain star, who suffered ligament damage and watched as Bonmati overtook her as the best female soccer player in the world, can confirm her return to the summit of the sport by lifting the trophy again, albeit in the absence of the injured Bonmati.
Leading contenders include Manchester City's Khadija Shaw and Barcelona's Claudia Pina.
Ultimately it is a matter of opinion — voted for by one journalist from each of FIFA’s top 100-ranked nations. The criteria include individual and team performances, “decisive and impressive character” and “class and fair play.”
Each journalist picks 10 names from the 30 nominees in descending order, with each position scored on a basis of 15 points for the top choice and one for the 10th. The player with the highest number of points is awarded the Ballon d'Or.
Tiebreakers include the number of first-place mentions, then second-place mentions and so on.
Kane just can't stop scoring and the records keep on falling.
Last month he became the fastest player to reach 100 Bundesliga goals, reaching that landmark in just 98 appearances.
Such outstanding form at the start of the season have only seemed to confirmed his march toward the Ballon d'Or. There's just one problem -- the judging period ended after the World Cup. The official judging dates from Aug. 3, 2025 to July 19, 2026.
Sure Kane's numbers and his trophies over that period have already put him well in the frame to lift the award, but if the start of this campaign had been included as well, his case to be called the best player in the world would have been even stronger.
Messi holds the record with eight wins, his most recent coming in 2023. Cristiano Ronaldo is next on the list with five wins, the last in 2017.
Michel Platini, Johan Cruyff and Marco van Basten have three each.
Also presented at the ceremony are awards for the men's and women's young talent, goalkeeper, coach, club and striker.
There is also the Socrates Award for “solidarity initiatives and societal causes”.
James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson
See AP’s full soccer coverage here
London City Lionesses' Alexia Putellas, top, and Everton's Naomi Layzell clash during the Women's Super League match between London City Lionesses and Everton, in Bromley, England, Sunday Oct. 18, 2026. PA (Jonathan Brady/Press Association via AP Images)
Bayern's Harry Kane celebrates after scoring a goal during the Champions League soccer match between Bayern Munich and Arsenal in Munich Germany, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP)
Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe reacts during the La Liga soccer match between Real Madrid and Sevilla in Madrid, Spain, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
JALUD, West Bank (AP) — Israel's elections Tuesday could mark the end of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decades-long political career.
But his legacy in the Israeli-occupied West Bank — of massive settlement expansion, the displacement of tens of thousands of Palestinians and the empowerment of armed settler extremists — will likely endure, even if his opponents seek to rein it in.
Israelis are deeply divided over Netanyahu's leadership and moral character, but they largely support settlement expansion and are opposed to a Palestinian state. So while Netanyahu's opponents have vowed to crack down on settler violence and remove the most contentious outposts, they are mostly against a two-state solution, seen internationally as the only realistic way to resolve the conflict.
“There shouldn’t be any illusions,” said Mairav Zonszein, senior Israel analyst at the International Crisis Group.
“At best, (a new government) would be able to slow down the extremely crazy acceleration that we’ve seen in the last four years of every aspect of Israel’s aggression in the occupied territories and inside Israel itself.”
One legacy of Netanyahu’s nearly unbroken 17-year rule — the longest of any Israeli leader — is that large groups of armed settlers now routinely defy the Israeli military as they rampage through Palestinian communities, drive people from their homes and seize ever larger swaths of their land.
Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of Gaza turbocharged the process. Netanyahu's opponents could bring in more troops and authorize stricter measures, but the genie may already be out of the bottle.
Netanyahu's government has distributed thousands of firearms to the settlers, who have allies in the military and security forces. Some extremist settlers have become like sheriffs — making arrests, killing Palestinians they say posed a threat, summoning security forces and driving Palestinian families from their homes.
The Palestinian Tubasi family was forced out in July after settlers besieged their hilltop home in the West Bank village of Jalud for 19 days. The settlers cut off their water access and their electricity, and threatened to “barbecue” them if they didn’t leave, said Mahmoud Tubasi, 60, the patriarch.
An Israeli court ordered the military to bring the family back, but that hasn't happened. Troops aborted their latest mission soon after it began, when a mob of over 150 armed settlers quickly assembled, scaled the walls of the home and set a car on fire.
Troops threw Tubasi and his family into an armored jeep and drove them away as settlers torched the place. They now live in relatives' houses in the valley below their gutted and blackened home, around which settlers still roam.
Israel’s military did not respond to a request for comment.
“If they wanted to evacuate them, of course, 100%, they can do that,” Tubasi said. “This is an army that fights in Lebanon, Gaza and in Iran — they can’t control 150 or 200 settlers?”
Under Netanyahu, settlers have established over 250 rustic camps across the territory, focusing particularly on areas where Palestinian herding communities have dwelled for decades.
The outposts allow the settlers to effectively run Palestinians off vast rural areas by attacking shepherds, taking over water resources and grazing their own herds, all under the eye of Israeli troops.
Dror Etkes, a researcher with an Israeli anti-settlement group, says the outposts have allowed the settlers to seize effective control of around a fifth of the West Bank. Israel captured the territory, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.
Since 2023, the strategy has forced at least 127 Palestinian herding communities off their land, according to data gathered by Etkes' organization, known as Kerem Navot, and B'Tselem, another Israeli anti-settlement group.
The departures have cleared nearly the entire eastern flank of the West Bank, along the border with Jordan, of Palestinians. The settlers' explicit goal is to prevent the establishment of a viable Palestinian state.
Netanyahu’s opponents say they will go after the most violent settlers and dismantle outposts — which are illegal under Israeli law. But they will not evacuate the over 100 new settlements Netanyahu's government legalized, including 44 that were formerly outposts. Nor will they remove settlements dating back decades, many of which now resemble fully developed suburbs.
Most of the international community views all Israeli settlements as illegal and an obstacle to a two-state solution. Israel views the West Bank as the biblical and historical heartland of the Jewish people and says its future status should be decided by negotiations — which have not been held in over a decade.
Even if some outposts are removed, many Palestinians seeking to return would find their homes burned and looted, and would continue to face threats from nearby settlers.
“The story is over. There will be no massive dismantlement of settlement,” said Etkes. “It’s now a full and prouder-than-ever apartheid regime.”
Amnesty International and other major rights groups accused Israel of the international crime of apartheid even before the Oct. 7 attack and its aftermath. Israel denies the allegation.
The politician most likely to replace Netanyahu as prime minister is retired general Gadi Eisenkot, a political centrist. He hopes to form a majority coalition with three other parties spanning Israel's political spectrum and without Arab-led parties advocating a two-state solution.
Beth Oppenheim, an Israel analyst for the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the opposition has “struggled to formulate a convincing alternative" to the right's new security strategy of “aggressively pre-empting threats, maintaining complete freedom of operation and imposing buffer zones.”
Palestinian attacks, like a shooting on Friday that killed two Israeli soldiers, and efforts on the right to cast the Israeli left as enemy sympathizers, have taken their toll. “The net effect is that talk of ‘peace’ and compromise has become politically toxic,” Oppenheim said.
Eisenkot does not support a Palestinian state but is open to limited self-rule in the 40% of the West Bank currently administered by the Palestinian Authority under agreements reached in the 1990s. He would allow settlement growth in the other 60% of the territory, which is under direct Israeli military rule.
He has also vowed to empower Israeli troops and paramilitary Border Police to crack down on settler violence.
Eisenkot “is interested in lowering the friction in the West Bank and interested in definitely lowering the sanctions and the intention for sanctions by European countries,” Zonszein said. “He’ll do kind of the minimum necessary to get the maximum effect.”
Eisenkot's prospective allies include left-wing politicians who oppose settlements and have favored a two-state solution, but they have agreed to set those positions aside to form a coalition to oust Netanyahu.
Israeli leaders have long balanced their ambitions in the occupied territories with demands from Washington aimed at resolving the conflict. But they are unlikely to face any significant pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, who endorsed Netanyahu and has long backed his policies.
Krauss reported from Ottawa, Ontario.
FILE - An Israeli settler overlooks members of Israeli forces blocking a road preventing Palestinians from reaching groves to harvest olives in the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)
FILE - A burnt car is seen in front of one of the two Palestinian houses belonging to the Tubasi family, which were burned in the West Bank village of Jalud, Sept. 29, 2026, following an overnight attack by Israeli settlers. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)
FILE - Israeli settlers are seen at one of the Palestinian houses belonging to the Tubasi family after they took it over in the West Bank village of Jalud, Aug. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)
Mahmoud Tubasi, left, and his son Wael, over look their family's houses, which were burned by Israeli settlers in the West Bank village of Jalud, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Mahmoud Tubasi stands on a rooftop near his two family's houses, which were burned by Israeli settlers in the West Bank village of Jalud, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
