The official Ballon d'Or website published an article titled "Harry Kane wins 2026 Ballon d'Or" more than four hours before the winner was announced. But according to BBC Sport, similar articles about Lamin Yamal, Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi have also been published on this site. Just after 17:15 GMT on Monday, an article entitled "Harry Kane wins 2026 Ballon d'Or" was published on the award's official website and quickly went viral on the internet. This article was published more than 4.5 hours before the winner of football's most prestigious individual award is to be announced at the London Palladium. It seemed that France Football, the organizer of this award, failed to keep the name of the winner confidential at the last stage. Of course, the Ballon d'Or winner is chosen based on the journalists' votes at the end of September. But further investigation of the Ballon d'Or website showed that similar content had been posted about several other contenders for this award; Lamin Yamal from Barcelona, ​​Kylian Mbappe from Real Madrid and Lionel Messi from Inter Miami. It is still unclear whether these contents were published by mistake or not.

The official Ballon d'Or website published an article titled "Harry Kane wins 2026 Ballon d'Or" more than four hours before the winner was announced. But according to BBC Sport, similar articles about Lamin Yamal, Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi have also been published on this site. Just after 17:15 GMT on Monday, an article entitled "Harry Kane wins 2026 Ballon d'Or" was published on the award's official website and quickly went viral on the internet. This article was published more than 4.5 hours before the winner of football's most prestigious individual award is to be announced at the London Palladium. It seemed that France Football, the organizer of this award, failed to keep the name of the winner confidential at the last stage. Of course, the Ballon d'Or winner is chosen based on the journalists' votes at the end of September. But further investigation of the Ballon d'Or website showed that similar content had been posted about several other contenders for this award; Lamin Yamal from Barcelona, ​​Kylian Mbappe from Real Madrid and Lionel Messi from Inter Miami. It is still unclear whether these contents were published by mistake or not.