Ballon d’Or 2026: Nigeria among 20 African countries to vote [Full list]

Nigeria is among 20 African countries eligible to vote for the 2026 Ballon d’Or after ranking among the top 100 nations in the FIFA men’s world ranking used to determine the award’s international jury. The 20 African countries represented in the 100-member jury, alongside their FIFA rankings, are: Morocco — 6th 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 According to the Ballon d’Or regulations published by French sports newspaper L’Équipe , the award is decided by an international jury of specialist journalists, with one representative from each of the top 100 countries in the FIFA men’s world ranking.

The regulations state that the FIFA ranking used is the one in effect when the nominee lists are published on September 8, 2026. Each juror will select 10 players in descending order of merit from the 30 nominees drawn up by the editorial staff of France Football , members of the L’Équipe editorial team, at least one juror from the previous edition and UEFA ambassadors. Under the voting system, the player ranked first by each juror receives 15 points, followed by 12, 10, eight, seven, five, four, three, two and one point for the players ranked from second to 10th. The player who accumulates the highest number of points will win the Ballon d’Or. The regulations also provide a system for resolving a tie. If two or more players finish with the same number of points, they will first be separated by the number of first-place votes. If the tie remains,…