Luis Díaz makes Ballon d'Or list again, finishes 24th in 2026

Colombia's name came up again at the Ballon d'Or gala, and this time it was thanks to Luis Díaz. The Bayern Munich winger finished 24th in the 2026 edition, a spot that might not sound spectacular at first glance, but it carries a detail worth noting: it's the second time the Guajiro native has made the list for soccer's most prestigious individual award.

That detail matters. With this latest appearance, Díaz joins a very small group of Colombians who have made the Ballon d'Or list more than once. The others are Radamel Falcao García and James Rodríguez, the two names who have represented the country in these votes over the years.

How did Díaz earn this nomination? With a 2025-2026 season that didn't go unnoticed in Munich. The Colombian was a key piece for a Bayern side that won the Bundesliga, the German Cup and the German Super Cup. The numbers back up that importance: in 51 matches across all competitions, Díaz scored 26 goals and added 20 assists. With those figures, you might expect a higher finish, but national team form during a Ballon d'Or cycle has its own rules, and the winger ended up just outside the top 20.

In the final ranking, Díaz finished ahead of names like Marquinhos, Dayot Upamecano, Bruno Fernandes, Julián Quiñones, William Saliba and Sadio Mané. Still, his 2026 finish fell short of his first appearance on the list back in 2022, when a strong run with Porto and Liverpool carried him to 17th place.

Falcao still sets the Colombian ceiling

When it comes to the best results by a Colombian in the award's history, the name that still tops the list is Falcao García. In 2012, wearing the Atlético Madrid jersey, the striker finished fifth in the voting, the best mark any Colombian player has ever achieved. A year later he made the list again and finished 11th, and then in 2017, playing for Monaco, he once again appeared among the candidates, this time in 24th, the exact same spot Díaz now occupies.

James Rodríguez, for his part, left his own mark after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Finishing as the tournament's top scorer with six goals earned him eighth place in that year's Ballon d'Or, his best career result and the second-best by any Colombian. In 2015 he made the list again, though that time he finished 19th.

Before all of them came Faustino Asprilla, though with an important caveat: "Tino" was never nominated for France Football's Ballon d'Or, but rather for FIFA's World Player of the Year award, where he finished sixth in 1993, 53rd in 1996 and 19th in 1997.

In women's soccer, Colombia also has its own recent history. Linda Caicedo became the first Colombian woman nominated for the Ballon d'Or in 2023, and a year later Mayra Ramírez made the list as well, finishing 21st.

With this new chapter, Luis Díaz adds to his standing among the game's elite. His 24th-place finish in 2026 falls short of the 17th he reached four years earlier, but his season with Bayern was enough to put him back among the 30 candidates for the award. Falcao's fifth-place finish, for now, remains a ceiling no Colombian has managed to top.