Twenty African nations are eligible to vote for the 2026 Ballon d’Or after ranking among the top 100 countries in the FIFA men’s world ranking used to determine the award’s international jury.
France Football, which organises the Ballon d’Or, said the men’s award 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.
Under the 2026 regulations, the FIFA ranking in effect when the voting lists were published on September 8 was used to determine the composition of the jury.
Each journalist will select and rank 10 players from the 30 nominees for the men’s Ballon d’Or.
The player ranked first will receive 15 points, followed by 12, 10, eight, seven, five, four, three, two and one point for the 10th-ranked player.
The 20 African nations on the jury
The 20 African nations represented among the 100 countries eligible to vote are:
- Morocco — 6th in the 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 remaining 80 countries in the top 100 are from Europe, Asia, North America, South America and Oceania.
Prominent journalists among the African voters
France Football maintains the privacy of the complete individual jury roster until the full voting charts are published after the ceremony. However, several African journalists have been publicly identified as Ballon d’Or voters.
Nigeria: Samm Audu, representing Nigeria through Score Nigeria.
Ghana: Michael Oti Adjei, sports broadcaster and head of sports at Media General.
Egypt: Inas Mazhar, a veteran journalist, former CAF media officer and longstanding Ballon d’Or voter for Egypt.
South Africa: Mark Gleeson, football commentator, analyst and statistician representing South Africa.
Morocco: Mustapha Badri, editor and director of 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 recognises performances during the 2025–26 season across domestic and international competitions.
According to France Football, the reference period for the men’s Ballon d’Or runs from August 3, 2025, to July 19, 2026, and includes the 2026 FIFA World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations.
