The hours before the announcement of the winner of the 2026 Ballon d'Or served up a major blunder. The award's official website appeared to publish articles announcing the victory of three different candidates: England's Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), Spain's Lamine Yamal (Barcelona) and France's Kylian Mbappé (Real Madrid).
Three articles went live on the official Ballon d'Or website, each one crowning a different candidate as the winner.
Mbappé's headline read: "Kylian Mbappé wins the 2026 Ballon d'Or thanks to his consistency at the highest levels".
Yamal and Kane got their own articles too. The organisers had clearly prepared all three in advance, ready to publish the correct one at the right moment once the winner was known.
Instead, all three went out by mistake. The slip-up sparked controversy before the official announcement of the 2026 Ballon d'Or winner.