The organisers of the Ballon d’Or faced embarrassment on Monday, 26 October 2026, after the award’s official website accidentally published articles naming winners of football’s most prestigious individual prize hours before the ceremony at London’s Palladium Theatre. The articles, which appeared online in the late afternoon, were swiftly deleted, but not before they had been spotted, shared and debated by fans around the world.
Shortly after 5:15 pm, an article titled “Harry Kane wins the 2026 Ballon d’Or” began to circulate online, more than four and a half hours before the winner was due to be announced at the star-studded event. The widespread sharing of the article caused confusion, with some wondering whether France Football, the award’s organiser, had failed at the final hurdle of keeping the winner, voted for by journalists at the end of September, under wraps.
Further digging revealed that the Kane article was not the only one. Similar pieces had been prepared naming Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal, Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe and Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi as winners, and corresponding articles were also written about London City Lionesses star Alexia Putellas and Barcelona’s Ewa Pajor, two of the favourites for the women’s award. Just before 5:40 pm, the articles about Kane and Mbappe had been removed from the website, but the damage, in terms of speculation, had already been done.
How the blunder was spotted
The error was spotted by journalists monitoring the award’s website ahead of the ceremony. The Daily Mail’s sports team discovered the articles and contacted organisers, setting off emergency phone calls and messages among staff as they worked to pull the content offline. One of the three leaked articles remained publicly accessible for more than 30 minutes after organisers were first notified of the blunder, according to reports.
It remains unclear whether the articles were published by mistake or whether their removal was intentional damage control. The most likely explanation, suggested by observers, is that the organiser had prepared a version of the winner’s article for each of the leading contenders, ready to publish the correct one the moment the result was announced, and that the drafts were accidentally made live. Such contingency publishing is common for major awards, but it depends on the drafts staying hidden until the right moment.
A race too close to call
The confusion was heightened by the fact that the three leading contenders, Kane, Mbappe and Yamal, were all plausible winners. Kane, the England captain, had scored 61 goals for Bayern Munich and won the European Golden Shoe as the German club completed a league and cup double, as well as scoring six goals for England as they finished third at the World Cup, their best performance since 1966. Mbappe and Yamal had also enjoyed outstanding seasons, and the trio were among 30 players nominated for their performances during the 2025-26 season, ranked from 30th to fourth ahead of the ceremony before the top three discovered their fate.
The ceremony itself began with a 3 pm Eastern Time pre-show followed by a ceremony that was delayed to 4:45 pm, streamed live on the award’s website and for free on DAZN. Presenters and former players joined the hosts on stage at the Palladium as the evening’s awards were handed out, with the men’s and women’s winners the final announcements of the night.
The other awards of the night
While attention focused on the leak, the ceremony also honoured a string of other winners. Barcelona and Spain forward Lamine Yamal won the trophy for the men’s young talent of the year, while Barcelona’s Vicky Lopez won the women’s young talent award. Barcelona were named women’s club of the year after winning the UEFA Women’s Champions League, Liga F, Copa de la Reina and Supercopa de Espana, while Paris Saint-Germain, the two-time defending Champions League winners, were named men’s club of the year.
Arsenal and England winger Bukayo Saka won the Socrates Award, given to players who undertake exceptional humanitarian work and show social responsibility. Saka, 25, was honoured for his long-standing work with the BigShoe charity, which he partnered with three years ago in the wake of the deadly earthquake in Morocco. He donated 50 container homes for families affected by that earthquake, funded accommodation for families affected by the earthquake in Turkey, and has funded 120 life-changing operations for children across Africa, including in Nigeria, his parents’ homeland. He was presented with the award by Nigerian singer Burna Boy.
The goalkeeper awards went to Barcelona and Spain’s Cata Coll and Athletic Bilbao and Spain’s Unai Simon, while the coaching awards went to Barcelona’s Pere Romeu and Spain’s Luis de la Fuente. The full ranking of the 30 men’s nominees and the women’s nominees was revealed through the evening, with the winners’ press conferences scheduled after the ceremony.
What happens next
The leak is unlikely to change the result, which was decided by a vote of journalists completed at the end of September, but it has raised questions about how the award’s organisers handle embargoed material. France Football has not publicly explained how the articles came to be published, and the episode will likely lead to tighter controls on pre-prepared content for future ceremonies.
For the players involved, the evening’s speculation will quickly be overtaken by the official result and by the season ahead. Kane, aiming to become the first Englishman to win the award since Michael Owen in 2001, Mbappe and Yamal will all return to club football with the Ballon d’Or decided, while the women’s winner will take her place alongside a growing list of stars honoured at the London ceremony. The blunder, though, will be remembered as a reminder that in the age of instant sharing, even a few minutes of premature publication is enough to spoil a secret years in the making.
