Just days after winning the Ballon d’Or, England captain Harry Kane is now the favourite to add to his personal honours by being crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year in December.
The Bayern Munich striker finally ended the wait for an Englishman to be crowned footballer of the year at the glittering ceremony in London, beating Kylian Mbappe and Lamine Yamal to lift the trophy.
He faces tough competition, though, from sprinter Amy Hunt, who became the first athlete to win four gold medals at a single European Championship earlier this year.
The 24-year-old won gold in the 100 metres, 200 metres, 4x100 metres relay and 4×100 metres mixed relay at the Birmingham event.
Can Kane add to his haul?
It’s been quite a year for Kane, who as well as becoming the quickest ever scorer to reach 100 Bundesliga games in just 98 games is now England’s joint-leading appearance maker so it’s no surprise the betting sites have him at 3/4 to win the award.
He was already the nation’s leading scorer with 91 goals from 125 appearances, while his appearance against the Czech Republic in October took him level on appearances with Peter Shilton.
Since the start of last season Kane has scored 89 goals in 81 goals for his club and country, including five hat-tricks.
He also scored six goals at the World Cup, as England achieved their best finish since winning the tournament back in 1966.
The last male footballer to win the award was Manchester United and Wales’ Ryan Giggs back in 2009 but footballers Beth Mead and Mary Earps won the award in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
Will Hunt run away with it?
Athletics have dominated the Sports Personality of the Year with 19 different athletes winning the award and four this century, so can Hunt be the fifth?
Fellow athlete Keely Hodkinson won the award in 2024, beating off the challenge of Luke Littler and Joe Root after she won Olympic gold in the 800m, which was Team GB’s first athletics gold since Mo Farah won the 5,000 and 10,000 metres at Rio 2016.
Hodkinson’s win at the glitzy pre-Christmas event meant she was the fourth woman in a row to win after Emma Raducanu, Mead and Earps.
That run was broken by last year’s winner Rory McIlroy who finally completed the Grand Slam after his dramatic play-off win at The Masters.
As well as the four gold medals at European Championships Hunt also won silver in the 100m at the Commonwealth Games, behind New Zealand’s Zoe Hobbs.
She’s currently the second favourite on sports betting apps but has previously been the market leader ahead of Kane.
Others in the mix
Other names in the mix for the event, which takes place on 18 December, are athlete Josh Kerr and skeleton racer Matt Weston.
Kerr won gold in the 3000m at the 2026 World Athletics Indoor Championships and in July he broke the world record for the mile, clocking 3:42.66 to break the record that had stood for 27 years.
He also won gold over the same distance at the Commonwealth Games and won the 1500 metres at the World Athletics Ultimate Championships in Budapest.
Meanwhile, Weston, has also had an impressive year winning gold in the Skeleton at the Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina, becoming the first British male champion in the sport.
To put the achievement into context, the gold medal was the first by a British man in an individual event at a Winter Olympics since figure skater Robin Cousins won a gold medal in 1980.
He won a second gold of the competition in the mixed team event with partner Tabitha Stoecker.
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