Nigeria's Voter Chooses Rodri as Best Player in Ballon d'Or

In the 2026 men's Ballon d'Or voting, Nigeria's representative ranked Spanish midfielder Rodri as the best player in the world, despite Rodri finishing fourth overall with 726 points. The voting breakdown, released by France Football, indicated that Nigeria was among ten countries whose journalists placed Rodri first.

The other countries included the United States, Guatemala, South Korea, Czech Republic, Serbia, Thailand, Vietnam, Croatia, and Iceland. Harry Kane of Bayern Munich won the award with 1,055 points, followed by Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappé with 1,027 points and Barcelona's Lamine Yamal with 881 points.

Nigeria's voter also ranked Paris Saint-Germain's Ousmane Dembélé second, although Dembélé finished seventh overall and received no first-place votes from the 100 participating journalists. The voting system awarded points based on the ranking of players on each ballot, with Kane winning by a narrow margin of 28 points over Mbappé.