Harry Kane was crowned winner of the men’s Ballon d’Or on Monday night, but a few hours earlier that confirmation appeared to have been announced prematurely.
At 17:15 GMT, an article from the award’s official website titled ‘Harry Kane wins the 2026 Ballon d’Or’ began to circulate online.
The widespread sharing of the article caused confusion online, with some wondering whether France Football – the organisers of the award – had fallen short at the final hurdle of keeping the winner, who was voted for by journalists at the end of September, under wraps.
That was until further digging on the Ballon d’Or website revealed that some of the other favourites to win the award – including Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal, Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe – also had similar pieces penned and published about them.
When asked about the articles by BBC Sport, a Ballon d’Or spokesperson said: “Some profiles of nominees prepared by BallonDor.com were inadvertently published online.
“These articles had been prepared for all nominees and should in no way be considered as an indication of the final results or rankings.”
By 17:40, the articles about Kane and Mbappe had been removed from the website.
Similar articles were also written about London City Lionesses star Alexia Putellas and Barcelona’s Ewa Pajor. Putellas went on to be officially confirmed as the winner of the women’s Ballon d’Or.
That premature announcement may have sparked some excitement in Kane that this could be his year, but he only had to wait a little longer to find out for sure.
