The official website of the Ballon d'Or published an article titled "Harry Kane won the 2026 Ballon d'Or" four hours before the announcement of the winner of the 2026 award, surprising football fans around the world. This article was published at 20:45 on Monday (Iranian time), while the winner of this award was to be announced at a ceremony at the London Palladium Theatre. The publication of the article caused confusion among users and raised the question of whether the organizers of the award, namely the magazine "France Football", failed to keep the results of the journalists' vote, which took place at the end of September, confidential. The BBC Sports Service reported with further investigation on the Ballon d'Or website that similar articles were published in the media for several other contenders, including Barcelona's Lamin Yamal, Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe and Inter Miami's Lionel Messi. It is still unclear whether these articles were published by mistake or whether their deletion was a deliberate act. Also, it is not known that the removal of the contents was done in order to curb the consequences of their early publication. Bayern Munich's British forward Harry Kane is the favorite to become the first Englishman in 25 years to win the Ballon d'Or at the ceremony in London on Monday night, despite facing stiff competition from league stars Lamin Yamal and Kylian Mbappe.

The official website of the Ballon d'Or published an article titled "Harry Kane won the 2026 Ballon d'Or" four hours before the announcement of the winner of the 2026 award, surprising football fans around the world. This article was published at 20:45 on Monday (Iranian time), while the winner of this award was to be announced at a ceremony at the London Palladium Theatre. The publication of the article caused confusion among users and raised the question of whether the organizers of the award, namely the magazine "France Football", failed to keep the results of the journalists' vote, which took place at the end of September, confidential. The BBC Sports Service reported with further investigation on the Ballon d'Or website that similar articles were published in the media for several other contenders, including Barcelona's Lamin Yamal, Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe and Inter Miami's Lionel Messi. It is still unclear whether these articles were published by mistake or whether their deletion was a deliberate act. Also, it is not known that the removal of the contents was done in order to curb the consequences of their early publication. Bayern Munich's British forward Harry Kane is the favorite to become the first Englishman in 25 years to win the Ballon d'Or at the ceremony in London on Monday night, despite facing stiff competition from league stars Lamin Yamal and Kylian Mbappe.