Ranking England's Ballon d'Or winners – how does Kane compare?

From Stanley Matthews to Harry Kane, how do England's Ballon d'Or winners rank? English Ballon d'Or winners have been few and far between. Triumphs to be treasured, names never to be forgotten. Harry Kane, England's great talisman and captain, is the first to claim football's grandest individual accolade in 25 years after a sensational campaign in Bayern Munich colours – and only the fifth Englishman to ever do so. Before him Michael Owen, in 2001, was the first Three Lions star to take it since Kevin Keegan's successive triumphs 22 years earlier. England World Cup winner Bobby Charlton did it in 1966, and that came after Stanley Matthews won the inaugural prize a decade earlier – handed what began life as the European Footballer of the Year award in 1956.

Others have come close – Billy Wright, Bobby Moore, Gary Lineker, David Beckham and Frank Lampard are all among the runners-up. Lucy Bronze, in 2019, and Beth Mead, 2022, also more recently finished second. Of course, the award has gradually evolved into the global behemoth it is today. The caveat with those earlier winners is that it was not a worldwide prize – until 1995 it was only open to European players, and only in 2007 did it expand to include all players from all clubs across the world. However,