Monday night brings the Ballon d’Or, with the gala ceremony for soccer’s most coveted individual prize taking place in London on Oct. 26.

The real show, though, will be at Camp Nou the day before, where a fifth of all nominees for the main award—as well as pair of Kopa Trophy nominees and two for the Yashin Trophy—will take to the field for the first Clásico of 2026–27.

Sunday’s showdown promises to be quite the spectacle, with the seemingly unstoppable force that is Barcelona intent on breaking records for the most consecutive wins to start the season, while driving a stake into the heart of José Mourinho right before Halloween.

Madrid , meanwhile, need a statement performance to convince the world (and themselves) that they are serious about a title race in La Liga , or face the ignominy of being out of the running after just 10 games.

The backdrop of inter-club relations reaching new lows and Mourinho’s return have added an extra spicy dressing, but it’ll still all come down to what happens between…