The 2026 Best Soccer Player ESPY comes down to four nominees: Lionel Messi, Ousmane Dembélé, Alexia Putellas, and Temwa Chawinga. Messi is the runaway favorite on the Kalshi board, chasing a second win in this fan-voted category after taking it in 2023. Dembélé arrives as the reigning 2025 Ballon d'Or holder, while Putellas and Chawinga carry the women's-game case. The award is decided the night of July 15, 2026 at the ESPYS on ESPN. See the live board above for current prices.
The Best Soccer Player ESPY is a fan-voted award, and fan votes run on name recognition. That is the whole story of the 2026 race. Lionel Messi is the runaway favorite on the Kalshi board even though Ousmane Dembélé is the player who walked off with the 2025 Ballon d'Or, the sport's actual individual honor. Four nominees are on the ballot: Messi, Dembélé, Spain's Alexia Putellas, and Kansas City Current forward Temwa Chawinga. The winner is revealed July 15, 2026.
Lionel Messi is the chalk here, and the Kalshi board treats him as a near-lock. The logic is not complicated. Messi is an eight-time Ballon d'Or winner and the 2022 World Cup champion, and since joining Inter Miami in 2023 he has been the most visible soccer player in the United States, which is the audience that fills out an ESPN fan ballot. He already won this exact category at the 2023 ESPYS, on the back of that World Cup run. A fan-voted American award plus the biggest name in the sport playing in an American league is why the market gives everyone else the leftovers, the same star-power logic that drives the Best Male Athlete ESPY 2026 board.
If the ESPY went strictly on the last twelve months of football, Ousmane Dembélé would be the pick. The PSG forward won the 2025 Ballon d'Or, scored 33 goals with 15 assists across 49 appearances, and was named Champions League Player of the Season as Paris ran through a continental treble capped by a 5-0 win over Inter in the final. That is the strongest on-field resume on the ballot.
Alexia Putellas carries the women's-game case. The FC Barcelona midfielder is a two-time Ballon d'Or FĂ©minin winner and a fixture of Spain's national team, and she returns to this category after a nomination in 2025. Temwa Chawinga is the domestic-league story: the Kansas City Current forward won back-to-back NWSL MVP awards in 2024 and 2025, the first player in league history to do it, and claimed the Golden Boot with 15 goals in 23 regular-season games last season. Both face the same structural problem on a fan ballot that Messi's profile dominates.
The Best Soccer Player ESPY has a short modern history because the category spent years on hiatus before ESPN reinstated it in a unified, gender-neutral form in 2023. That makes the recent list clean. In 2023, Lionel Messi won it for his 2022 World Cup triumph. In 2024, Kylian MbappĂ© of Real Madrid took the award. In 2025, Christian Pulisic of AC Milan won it, beating Lamine Yamal, Aitana BonmatĂ, and Alexia Putellas. Before the hiatus, the earlier version of the award went to Mia Hamm three times, in 2000, 2001, and 2005, and to Ronaldinho in 2006. The through-line since 2023 is consistent: the winner is usually the biggest global name on the ballot, which is exactly why Messi sits where he does this year.
The 2026 Best Soccer Player ESPY resolves the night of Wednesday, July 15, 2026, when the ESPYS air on ESPN at 8pm ET from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The category is decided by ESPN fan voting, and the market settles on whoever is announced as the winner during the broadcast. The Messi contract pays out if he is named Best Soccer Player, and every other nominee's contract settles at zero. There is no second round and no partial credit.
The Best Soccer Player race is one slice of a full 2026 ESPYS board. The Best Team ESPY 2026 odds track the top club and national-team honor, while the Best Female Athlete ESPY 2026 market covers one of the night's marquee cross-sport awards. Baseball and basketball fans can follow the Best MLB Player ESPY 2026 and Best NBA Player ESPY 2026 races, and the broader entertainment prediction markets hub collects every awards board in one place.
The 2026 Best Soccer Player ESPY resolves the night of Wednesday, July 15, 2026, when the ESPYS air live on ESPN at 8pm ET from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The winner is determined by ESPN fan voting, and the market settles on the nominee announced as Best Soccer Player during the broadcast. Each nominee contract pays $1 per share if that nominee wins and $0 if not. If the ceremony is postponed past the resolution date, canceled, or the category is not presented, the contract resolves per each platform's published rules.
It is a fan-voted award presented at the ESPYS honoring the top soccer player of the past year, regardless of nationality or gender. The 2026 nominees are Lionel Messi, Ousmane Dembélé, Alexia Putellas, and Temwa Chawinga.
The award is announced Wednesday, July 15, 2026, when the ESPYS air on ESPN at 8pm ET from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The market settles that night on whoever is named the winner.
As of July 11, 2026, Kalshi has Lionel Messi as the runaway favorite at 98c. Messi already won this category at the 2023 ESPYS and is the most recognizable soccer player on a U.S. fan ballot.
Lionel Messi won in 2023, Kylian MbappĂ© won in 2024, and Christian Pulisic won in 2025 ahead of Lamine Yamal, Aitana BonmatĂ, and Alexia Putellas. The unified award was reinstated in 2023 after a long hiatus.
Watch whether the women's-game vote consolidates behind Alexia Putellas or Temwa Chawinga, and whether Ousmane Dembélé's 2025 Ballon d'Or moves the fan ballot before the July 15, 2026 ceremony.