The report says Waddle sees Kane as a genuine front-runner because of what he has produced for Bayern Munich and England, not because of the medals attached to the campaign. That is the key distinction.
For years, Kane has been judged through a strange lens. His finishing, movement and consistency are usually praised, yet the conversation often drifts back to what his teams did not win. That can make an individual award feel more like a team roll call than a true assessment of performance.
As Waddle put it in the report: “Você é julgado pelo que faz como jogador individualmente. Você não precisa estar em uma equipe vencedora. São 11 jogadores, e 11 jogadores não vão ganhar a Bola de Ouro. Um jogador ganha.”
This is where Ballon d’Or voting always becomes messy. Team silverware is easy to point to. It creates a neat storyline. But football is rarely that neat.
A forward can have a brilliant season and still fall short because a defence makes one mistake, a midfielder misses a chance, or a stronger squad goes deeper in a knockout competition. That does not suddenly make the individual season less outstanding.
The report says Waddle contrasted Kane with Lamine Yamal, another player widely discussed in these debates. That comparison matters because it exposes the split in voting: pure performance versus performance plus trophies.
Waddle’s final line in the report was emphatic: “A Bola de Ouro deve ser sempre para o melhor jogador da temporada. E Harry Kane, aos meus olhos, deveria levantá-la.”
The next chapter will be written on the pitch. If Kane starts the new season strongly and keeps delivering for club and country, the argument may become too loud for voters to ignore.