Chawinga breaks into the Ballon d’Or top 10 as Hakimi slips to 13th
Africa at football’s biggest awards night, and the CAF Player of the Year shortlists that followed.
By SitesNG Sports Desk · · 2 min read
The 70th Ballon d’Or ceremony was held at the London Palladium on Monday 26 October 2026. England’s Harry Kane won the men’s award ahead of Kylian Mbappé and Lamine Yamal, and Spain’s Alexia Putellas won the women’s award for a third time.
A first for African women
Malawi forward Temwa Chawinga finished 10th, the first African woman ever in the women’s top 10, up from 17th a year earlier. She scored 15 goals in 22 matches for Kansas City Current in the period assessed. Zambia’s Barbra Banda came 18th.
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The men
Morocco captain Achraf Hakimi was Africa’s highest-placed man in 13th, down from sixth in 2025, and Senegal’s Sadio Mané was joint 29th. Hakimi answered four days later with the first hat-trick of his career, in PSG’s 5-1 win at Le Havre.
| Award | African finishers |
|---|---|
| Women’s Ballon d’Or | Temwa Chawinga 10th, Barbra Banda 18th |
| Men’s Ballon d’Or | Achraf Hakimi 13th, Sadio Mané joint 29th |
| Kopa Trophy | Yan Diomande 5th, Ayyoub Bouaddi 6th, Ibrahim Maza 9th |
| Yashin Trophy | Vozinha 6th, Yassine Bounou 8th, Edouard Mendy 9th |
Next: the CAF Awards in Lagos
On 3 and 4 November CAF named its shortlists for the CAF Awards in Lagos on 7 December. Hakimi, Mané, Antoine Semenyo and Brahim Díaz are among ten men’s nominees; Mohamed Salah is not on the list. Temwa and Tabitha Chawinga, Banda and Thembi Kgatlana are among the women’s nominees.
Reporting by the SitesNG Sports Desk, based on reports from Sports Illustrated, Africa Soccer, Flashscore, Al Jazeera, CAF. Published 4 November 2026 in the African Sports News weekly edition of 10 November 2026.
