Ballon d'Or mistakenly named three different players as winner
Ballon d'Or organizers accidentally published articles on their website hours before the official ceremony in London, naming Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappé and Lamine Yamal as winners. The organizers said the articles were preliminary drafts prepared for all nominees and did not reflect the final result.
The Ballon d'Or 2026 organizers caused major confusion on Monday. Hours before the award ceremony, articles appeared on their official website stating that three different players had won the men's award.
Bayern Munich forward Harry Kane, Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappé and Barcelona winger Lamine Yamal were each named winners in separate articles that were visible briefly. The articles appeared about two and a half hours before the ceremony, which was scheduled to begin at the London Palladium, and were removed shortly afterward.
The headline of one article highlighted Kane's goalscoring in the 2025-26 season. Another described the 19-year-old Yamal as the youngest winner in the award's 70-year history. The third article praised Mbappé's consistency at the highest level.
France Football organizers said the articles had been prepared in advance for several candidates and were published by mistake. In their statement, they stressed that the profiles were produced by BallonDor.com and that none of them represented a final result or ranking.
The error led to intense speculation before the ceremony. However, none of the mistakenly published articles revealed the actual winner. The men's Ballon d'Or recipient will be officially announced at the ceremony on Monday evening.
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