Ballon d’Or 2026: Official website appears to name three different winners

The Ballon d’Or website appeared to publish articles declaring Harry Kane, Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappe as the winner of the 2026 award, hours before the official announcement.

England striker Kane, who plays for Bayern Munich, Spain and Barcelona forward Yamal, and France and Real Madrid forward Mbappe were each featured in separate articles on the award’s official website.

The headline of the article about Mbappe read: “Kylian Mbappe wins the 2026 Ballon d’Or thanks to his consistency at the highest level.”

Separate articles were also published about Yamal and Kane, with each one announcing that the respective player had won the prestigious individual prize.

The three publications suggest that the organisers had prepared winner articles for all three leading candidates in advance, with the intention of releasing the correct version once the identity of the winner was confirmed.

However, it appeared that all three articles were made available by mistake before the official announcement. The error quickly prompted questions over who had actually won the 2026 Ballon d’Or, with the three candidates all seemingly being presented as the successful player.