Nigeria’s representative in the 2026 men’s Ballon d’Or voting placed Spanish midfielder Rodri ahead of eventual winner Harry Kane in his selection, according to the voting details published by France Football on Friday.
The breakdown revealed that Nigeria was among 10 countries whose representatives selected the Manchester City midfielder as their top choice for the prestigious individual award.
The other countries were the United States, Guatemala, South Korea, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Thailand, Vietnam, Croatia and Iceland.
Despite receiving Nigeria’s top vote, Rodri finished fourth in the overall ranking with 726 points.
Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane emerged winner with 1,055 points, followed by Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappé with 1,027 points and Barcelona youngster Lamine Yamal, who accumulated 881 points.
Nigeria’s representative also placed Paris Saint-Germain forward Ousmane Dembélé second in his voting selection.
Dembélé, who claimed the 2025 men’s Ballon d’Or, finished seventh in this year’s edition. Interestingly, none of the 100 participating journalists ranked the French forward first.
However, he received second-place votes from representatives of seven countries, including Burkina Faso, China, France, Georgia, Haiti, North Macedonia and Nigeria.
The 2026 voting exercise involved journalists representing the 100 highest-ranked countries in the FIFA rankings.
Each journalist was required to select 10 players from the final shortlist and rank them according to their performances.
Players earned 15 points for a first-place position, 12 for second, 10 for third, with the points decreasing progressively to one point for a 10th-place selection.
Kane secured the award by a 28-point margin over Mbappé, making it the fourth-closest finish in the history of the men’s Ballon d’Or.
