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Two of the most prolific goalscorers in the world are among the favourites to win the Ballon d’Or in 2026.

Harry Kane is the player most widely expected to win the Ballon d’Or after scoring more goals than anyone else across Europe’s major leagues last season, but Kylian Mbappe has been making his own case as the top scorer in the Champions League last season and the 2026 World Cup.

Kane and Mbappe faced off in last season’s Champions League quarter-finals between Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, as well as the World Cup third-place play-off between England and France.

Across their whole careers for club and country, they have a combined 978 goals.

And though neither of them have ever won the Champions League still, they are rightly regarded as two of the best players in the world.

Here’s how the two players have compared since the start of last season.

Harry Kane since start of last season

• Apps: 57
• Goals: 65
• Assists: 8
• Hat tricks: 5
• Minutes per goal: 70
• Best scoring streak: 8

Kane in the Champions League since start of last season

• Apps: 14
• Goals: 15
• Assists: 3
• Minutes per goal: 75

Kane is a player we’ve become accustomed to seeing score more than 30 or 40 goals in a season, stretching back to his time with Tottenham.

But the 2025-26 campaign was the highest-scoring in his career with 61 goals, better than the 44 he got in his first season with Bayern.

He also surpassed his best-ever goalscoring campaign in the Champions League after scoring 11 in Europe last season.

Braces against Chelsea, Pafos and Union SG in the league phase helped his tally, as did a double in the second leg of their last-16 win over Atalanta.

Kane enjoyed two eight-game scoring streaks in all competitions last season and bagged hat tricks against RB Leipzig, Hoffenheim and Stuttgart in the Bundesliga last season.

Kylian Mbappe this season

• Apps: 51
• Goals: 50
• Assists: 9
• Hat tricks: 6
• Minutes per goal: 85
• Best scoring streak: 8

Mbappe in the Champions League this season

• Apps: 12
• Goals: 16
• Assists: 1
• Minutes per goal: 63

After surpassing the 40-goal mark in both his last season with PSG and first with Real Madrid, Mbappe reached the same milestone again last season.

He will no doubt have harboured some frustrations at seeing his former teammates win the Champions League last season while Madrid made only the quarter-finals.

However, he has been on a mission since. Last season was his highest-scoring Champions League campaign; he is now level with Raul’s tally among the all-time top five competition goalscorers.

Braces against Marseille, Monaco and Benfica, a hat trick against Kairat and four goals against Olympiacos were the fruits of his efforts in last season’s league phase, before his goals in each leg against Bayern.

But Madrid’s elimination in the quarter-finals again means Mbappe will have to wait until the end of this season at least to stand a chance of finally winning the competition.

READ MORE: The top goalscorers for club & country in 2026 so far: Kane, Gyokeres, Yamal…

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