In the hours before the Ballon d’Or ceremony, the conversation around European football’s most individual prize briefly slipped away from the gala itself and into the machinery behind it. Pages appearing to celebrate three different winners — Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal, Bayern Munich and England striker Harry Kane, and Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappé — became visible on the award’s official website before being removed.
The profiles were noticed roughly an hour before the event was due to begin and remained accessible for about 30 minutes. Each carried the unmistakable language of a winner’s tribute, despite the fact that the final ranking had not yet been announced. Links later returned error messages after the pages were taken down.
The Ballon d’Or’s live coverage described the publication as an accidental release. It said candidate articles had been prepared in advance for several possible winners and insisted that they did not reveal the final podium. The award’s organisers said nobody knew the ranking at that point.
Three possible stories from the same ceremony
Kane’s unpublished page concentrated on a prolific campaign for Bayern and England, referring to 61 goals across his season and his achievements despite England’s result at the 2026 World Cup. Its framing suggested that his scoring record had carried him to the prize.
Yamal’s version looked instead to history and youth. The Barcelona forward, aged 19, was described as becoming the youngest Ballon d’Or recipient since the award began in 1956, a distinction that would underline the scale of his rise in such a short senior career.
Mbappé’s prepared article drew together his World Cup record and another high-scoring year with Real Madrid. It portrayed the French forward as the leading scorer in World Cup history and suggested those international exploits, alongside his club goals, had delivered his first Ballon d’Or.
Whatever appeared on the site, the confirmed shortlist showed the breadth of the contest across the continent. Alongside Kane, Yamal and Mbappé were reigning holder Ousmane Dembélé, Manchester City striker Erling Haaland, Rodri, Fabián Ruiz, Lionel Messi, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Michael Olise. Messi arrived with eight Ballon d’Or awards already to his name.
- Ousmane Dembélé
- Erling Haaland
- Rodri
- Fabián Ruiz
- Lionel Messi
- Khvicha Kvaratskhelia
- Michael Olise
For a short time, the website offered three competing endings to the same football year: Kane’s goals from Munich, Yamal’s teenage ascent in Barcelona, or Mbappé’s record-setting route from Madrid and the World Cup. The ceremony, rather than those prematurely posted pages, remained the only place where the order would be settled.
