Twenty African nations are eligible to vote for the 2026 Ballon d’Or after making the top 100 of the FIFA men’s world ranking used to determine the award’s international jury.
France Football, which organises the award, said the men’s Ballon d’Or is decided by an international jury of specialised journalists, with one representative from each of the 100 highest-ranked nations in the FIFA men’s world ranking.
The 2026 regulations state that the FIFA ranking in effect when the voting lists were published on September 8 was used to determine the jury.
Each journalist will select and rank 10 players from the 30 Ballon d’Or nominees.
The first-ranked player receives 15 points, followed by 12, 10, eight, seven, five, four, three, two and one point for the 10th choice.
The 20 African nations represented in the 100-country jury are:
- Morocco — 6th in FIFA ranking
- Senegal — 18th
- Egypt — 24th
- Nigeria — 26th
- Algeria — 29th
- Côte d’Ivoire — 31st
- DR Congo — 41st
- Cameroon — 43rd
- Mali — 53rd
- South Africa — 54th
- Tunisia — 57th
- Burkina Faso — 62nd
- Cabo Verde — 64th
- Ghana — 65th
- Guinea — 81st
- Gabon — 84th
- Angola — 87th
- Uganda — 89th
- Zambia — 90th
- Benin — 94th
The other 80 countries in the top 100 are from Europe, Asia, North America, South America and Oceania.
Prominent Journalists Heading the African Jury
France Football maintains data privacy for the complete individual roster until full voting charts are published post-ceremony. However, among the African journalists who have been publicly identified as Ballon d’Or voters are:
- Nigeria: Samm Audu (Representing Nigeria via Score Nigeria).
- Ghana: Michael Oti Adjei (Celebrated sports broadcaster and head of sports at Media General, executing Ghana’s ballot).
- Egypt: Inas Mazhar (Veteran journalist, former CAF media officer, and longstanding vote holder for the Pharaohs).
- South Africa: Mark Gleeson (highly respected African football commentator, analyst, and statistician representing Bafana Bafana).
- Morocco: Mustapha Badri (Renowned editor and director of the prominent Moroccan sports publication Al Mountakhab)The Ballon d’Or ceremony will take place in London on October 26, when the winner of the men’s award will be announced.The award covers performances during the 2025-26 season, including domestic and international competitions.France Football said the reference period ran from August 3, 2025, to July 19, 2026, including the 2026 World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations for the men’s award.
