For a moment, it seemed as though Harry Kane’s dreams of winning the Ballon d’Or had come true.
It was shortly after 17:15 GMT on Monday when an article from the award’s official website titled “Harry Kane wins the 2026 Ballon d’Or” began to circulate online.
It was more than four and a half hours before the winner of the game’s most prestigious individual award was due to be announced at a star-studded event at London’s Palladium Theatre.
The article’s widespread sharing caused confusion online, with some wondering whether France Football, the award’s organisers, had failed at the final hurdle of keeping the winner, voted by journalists at the end of September, under wraps.
That was until further digging on the Ballon d’Or website revealed that other favourites to win the award, including Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal and Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe, had also had similar pieces written and published about them.
When asked about the articles by BBC Sport, a Ballon d’Or spokesperson said: “Some profiles of nominees prepared by BallonDor.com were inadvertently published online.
“These articles had been prepared for all nominees and should in no way be considered as an indication of the final results or rankings”
Just before 17:40 BST, the articles about Kane and Mbappe had been removed from the website.
Similar articles also covered London City Lionesses star Alexia Putellas and Barcelona’s Ewa Pajor, two of the favourites for the corresponding women’s award, also taking place on Monday night.
If Kane is to realise his dream and become the first Englishman to win the award since 2001, he will have to wait a little longer to find out.