Ballon d'Or Website Mistakenly Declared Three Winners Before Kane Took the Prize
Stanley Matthews of England won the Ballon d'Or in its inaugural year. In his honour, the 70th Ballon d'Or ceremony was held this time in London, England. Harry Kane's first win of the award on home ground ended a 25-year wait for the English. But before that, the Ballon d'Or website had mistakenly declared three players as winners.
The main contest for the 2026 Ballon d'Or was between Harry Kane, Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappe. Bayern Munich's English forward Kane beat the other two in the vote to win the Ballon d'Or. Last season he scored 73 goals for club and country combined. England finished third at the World Cup, while Kane won two trophies with Bayern including the Bundesliga.
But until the name was announced, nobody was certain who would win this year's Ballon d'Or. A few hours earlier, three separate reports were published on the award's official website. They named Kane, Yamal and Mbappe respectively as the winner of the 2026 men's Ballon d'Or. The incident created widespread confusion before the announcement.
The reports presented Mbappe, Yamal and Kane as prospective winners. Each set out the player's statistics and career performance as the argument for presenting him as the winner. Kane ultimately won the award, so the report carrying his name proved correct. The incident spread quickly on social media. But the reports were taken down within a few minutes.
The report on Mbappe said, 'A record-breaking World Cup and another flood of goals for Real Madrid have brought Kylian Mbappe his first Ballon d'Or.' The report on Yamal, who won the Kopa Trophy for a third consecutive time, stated, 'At just 19, Lamine Yamal has become the youngest winner in Ballon d'Or history. The award was launched in 1956.' Neither of those two reports remained live.
According to British outlet Daily Mail Sport, the organisers were taken aback by the incident. An investigation has begun into how the reports were published early. The outlet said steps to identify those responsible and prevent such incidents in future are also being considered.
