An incredible event has occurred on the official website of the "Ballon d'Or", with only a few hours left until the announcement of the winner of the 2026 edition. The official website has mistakenly published three articles announcing the winner of the award, and three different names: Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappé and Lamine Yamal. In these circumstances, one thing seems certain: the winner will not be any of these three footballers, at least if the publications made by mistake have not revealed the real name.
The ceremony will start in London at 21:00 Italian time, while the winner of the 2026 Ballon d'Or is expected to be announced around 22:45. However, it is common practice for the articles to be prepared much earlier and published at the right moment. This time, according to the report, the secrecy surrounding the winner's name has been complete. There are very few people, as many as can be counted on the fingers of one hand, who know who has won the award.
Article prepared for Lamine Yamal's victory.
Ballon d'Or website error: articles about the winner were published prematurely
Most likely, the name of the winner was not even known to the person who was tasked with writing the articles prepared in advance for the three main candidates. The texts were placed in the publishing system, but were mistakenly posted online, causing real chaos. Moreover, the articles remained published for at least an hour. Just a short while ago, all three links began to display the message “page not found”.
The article about Harry Kane was titled: “Harry Kane wins the 2026 Ballon d’Or: here are his best and most significant goals in a 61-goal season.” The text analyzed the extraordinary season of the English striker of Bayern Munich.
As for Lamine Yamal, the article about his victory claimed that the Barcelona and Spain international had set an “unprecedented record”, becoming the youngest winner in the history of the award, at just 19 years old. A feat that, according to the article, “not even Leo Messi had managed to achieve”.
Meanwhile, in the article about Kylian Mbappé, the Frenchman was praised as "the personification of continuity at the highest levels, not only last season, but in every season since he emerged as a true phenomenon."
The article about Kylian Mbappé was the third to be published in error on the official Ballon d'Or website.
Everything remains within the framework of an error that has already been corrected, while it is expected that within a few hours the correct article will be published among the three prepared versions. The winner of the 2026 "Golden Ball" is...
