Lamine Yamal won the 2026 Kopa Trophy at the London Palladium on 26 October, his third in a row, with Pau Cubarsí second and Warren Zaïre-Emery third. On 20 October we published our Kopa Trophy ballot: five points to Cubarsí, three to Yamal, one to Yan Diomande. We also wrote that the jury of former Ballon d'Or winners would most likely give Yamal the award anyway. They did, and Yamal used his acceptance speech to say the prize should have been Cubarsí's. Here is the full ranking, read against what we said, against the players' EA FC 27 cards, and against the season the jury judged. (Ratings and season figures as of 17 October 2026; result as of 26 October 2026.)
Three Places That Tell the Story
1st
Lamine Yamal
A third Kopa in a row, the first player to win it three times
2nd
Pau Cubarsí
First on our ballot, second on the jury's
4th
Lennart Karl
Ninth of ten by his EA FC 27 card
| Player | Club Now | FC 27 | Card Rank | Our Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Lamine Yamal | Barcelona | 90 | 1 | 3 |
| 02 | Pau Cubarsí | Barcelona | 86 | 2 | 5 |
| 03 | Warren Zaïre-Emery | Paris Saint-Germain | 83 | 4 | — |
| 04 | Lennart Karl | Bayern Munich | 77 | 9 | — |
| 05 | Yan Diomande | Real Madrid | 84 | 3 | 1 |
| 06 | Ayyoub Bouaddi | Manchester City | 80 | =5 | — |
| 07 | Kerim Alajbegović | Juventus | 71 | 10 | — |
| 08 | Eli Junior Kroupi | Bournemouth | 80 | =5 | — |
| 09 | Ibrahim Maza | Bayer Leverkusen | 80 | =5 | — |
| 10 | Johan Manzambi | Aston Villa | 80 | =5 | — |
What We Said, and What Happened
Four things in our piece of 20 October could be checked against the night itself.
20 October
- Winner: Yamal, most likely
- Cubarsí: our first, five points
- Yamal: our second, three points
- Diomande: our third, one point
26 October
- Winner: Yamal, a third in a row
- Cubarsí: second
- Yamal: first
- Diomande: fifth
The Winner We Expected
Yamal is the first player to win the Kopa three times; the award began in 2018. We said the former winners would most likely give it to him, and that it would be hard to call that wrong. They did, and the case still stands: no teenager had won the European Championship and the World Cup before him, and his 2025-26 ran to 24 goals and 17 assists for Barcelona before a torn hamstring in April. He also finished third in the Ballon d'Or itself, behind Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappé.
The Player We Put First
Our five points went to Cubarsí, and the jury put him second. We gave him our vote for what the award's criteria list next after individual performance: a team that won. He started all eight of Spain's World Cup matches, the final included, in a defence that conceded once, and FIFA named him the tournament's best young player, ahead of Yamal. On the night, the winner went further than we had. Accepting the trophy from Andriy Shevchenko, Yamal said in Spanish that he would have liked his team-mate to be there. In ESPN's translation, he went on: "This prize should have been for him."
“Our ballot had Cubarsí first. The jury had him second. The winner had him first.”
The Card and the Jury
EA FC 27 and the jury agreed at the top and parted below it. The game and the former winners put the same two names first and second: Yamal at 90, Cubarsí at 86. Below them, the jury judged a season the cards had priced differently.
- Lennart Karl, ninth of ten by his card at 77, finished fourth. He had nine goals and eight assists for Bayern at seventeen and eighteen, became the youngest player to score for them in the Champions League, and missed the World Cup after tearing a thigh muscle in training.
- Kerim Alajbegović, six points below any other nominee at 71, finished seventh: thirteen goals for Salzburg, and the shoot-outs that took Bosnia and Herzegovina to the World Cup.
- Johan Manzambi, one of four nominees at 80, finished tenth, despite three goals and two assists for Switzerland at the World Cup.
- Yan Diomande, third by his card at 84 and third on our ballot, finished fifth.
The Eight Playing for Third
Each juror ranks three names, so we wrote that most of the other eight were playing for third place. Warren Zaïre-Emery took it. His season ended with a Ligue 1 title and a second straight Champions League with Paris Saint-Germain, and with a complaint about starting the final on the bench. Two of our three names finished first and second; the third, Diomande, finished fifth.
Kopa Trophy 2026: Quick Reference
Who won the Kopa Trophy 2026?
Lamine Yamal, on Monday 26 October 2026 at the Ballon d'Or ceremony at the London Palladium: his third in a row, and the first player to win it three times.
What is the full Kopa Trophy 2026 ranking?
Lamine Yamal won, ahead of Pau Cubarsí (second), Warren Zaïre-Emery (third), Lennart Karl, Yan Diomande, Ayyoub Bouaddi, Kerim Alajbegović, Eli Junior Kroupi, Ibrahim Maza and Johan Manzambi, in that order.
What did Yamal say about Cubarsí?
Accepting the award on stage, speaking in Spanish, he said he would have liked his team-mate to be there and that the prize should have been Cubarsí's.
Who won the Ballon d'Or 2026?
Harry Kane, ahead of Kylian Mbappé, with Lamine Yamal third.
Which season did the jury judge?
Everything from 3 August 2025 to 19 July 2026, the World Cup included.
Is it still called the Kopa Trophy?
The organisers now present it as the men's Young Talent of the Year award; most coverage still calls it the Kopa Trophy.
The Scout Gamer Read. We expected the jury to choose Yamal, and voted for Cubarsí. The jury chose Yamal and put Cubarsí second. The cards and the jury agreed on the top two, in order, and parted on almost everyone below them. Cubarsí's season was what we said it was: every minute of a World Cup win, at nineteen, as a centre-back.
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