We investigate the chiral phase transition within a sphere under a uniform background magnetic field. The Nambu--Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model is employed and the MIT boundary condition is imposed for the spherical confinement. Using the wave expansion method, the diagonalizable Hamiltonian and energy spectrum are derived for the system. By solving the gap equation in the NJL model, the influence of magnetic field on quark matter in a sphere is studied. It is found that inverse magnetic catalysis occurs at small radii, while magnetic catalysis occurs at large radii. Additionally, both magnetic catalysis and inverse magnetic catalysis are observed at the intermediate radii ($R\approx4$ fm).