Arsenal shortlisted for prestigious award after Premier League title triumph
Arsenal have been nominated for the 2026 Ballon d’Or Men’s Club of the Year award following their Premier League triumph and run to the Champions League final.
The Gunners are one of five clubs shortlisted for the prestigious prize after enjoying their most successful campaign for more than two decades.
Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Flamengo and Norwegian side Bodo/Glimt complete the shortlist, putting Arsenal among some of the standout performers from across world football.
Here are our 2026 Men's Club of the Year nominees!#ballondor pic.twitter.com/UIKAzfgy4H
— Ballon d'Or (@ballondor) September 8, 2026
The nomination provides further recognition for a memorable 2025/26 campaign under Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta.
Arsenal ended their 22-year wait for the Premier League title after finishing seven points clear of Manchester City.
The Gunners won 26 league matches and closed the campaign with five consecutive victories to ensure the trophy returned to north London for the first time since the Invincibles season of 2003/04.
Their domestic success was accompanied by Arsenal’s best Champions League campaign since reaching the final under Arsene Wenger 20 years earlier.
Arteta’s team defeated Bayern Munich and Inter Milan during the league phase before overcoming Bayer Leverkusen, Sporting CP and Atletico Madrid in the knockout rounds.
That sequence carried Arsenal to the final in Budapest, where they eventually fell short against defending champions Paris Saint-Germain.
Arsenal nevertheless went through the entire Champions League campaign without losing inside 90 minutes, while their nine clean sheets were the most recorded by any team in the competition.
Their seven goals conceded were also fewer than any other side, highlighting the defensive strength that helped drive their challenge on two major fronts.
The Club of the Year nomination continues a growing Arsenal presence at the Ballon d’Or awards.
Arsenal Women won the Women’s Club of the Year prize in 2025 after lifting the Women’s Champions League, while 12 players from the men’s and women’s teams received recognition across the various individual awards.
Declan Rice and Viktor Gyokeres were among Arsenal’s representatives in the men’s Ballon d’Or rankings last year, while Gyokeres also collected the Gerd Muller Trophy.
The 2026 winners will be revealed on October 26, when the Ballon d’Or ceremony moves from Paris to London for the first time in its 70-year history.
The change of venue commemorates the anniversary of the inaugural award, won by England and Blackpool legend Sir Stanley Matthews in 1956.
For Arsenal, the latest nomination reflects how significantly their standing has changed after finally converting several seasons of progress into major silverware.
Winning the award would provide another distinction for a season in which the Gunners returned to the summit of English football and came closer than ever to conquering Europe.
The post Arsenal shortlisted for prestigious award after Premier League title triumph first appeared on ArsenalNews.co.uk.
