The Ballon d’Or has been plunged into chaos after its official website published three separate articles claiming Harry Kane, Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappe had all won the prestigious individual award before the ceremony’s start.
The world’s best player of 2026 will be crowned tonight at the London Palladium with Bayern Munich and England striker Kane the favourite, off the back of 89 goals for club and country in just 81 appearances since the start of last season.
But in a seemingly colossal error by organisers, Kane was one of three winners promoted by the award’s official website hours before proceedings got underway, with Barcelona sensation Yamal and Real Madrid striker Mbappe - the two other frontrunners - getting similar articles posted.
The articles have since been taken down by the website.
Kane’s article was headlined: “Harry Kane wins 2026 Ballon d’Or: Here are his best and most meaningful strikes from a 61-goal season”, which went on to examine his “prolific haul” and records that “ensured Bayern won a domestic treble”.
Mbappe’s piece claimed he was awarded the Ballon d’Or for “consistency personified at the very highest level” in the headline, following a “record-breaking World Cup and another welter of goals for Los Blancos”.
World Cup winner Yamal, meanwhile, had his article led on the 19-year-old’s “unprecedented record ... that not even Lionel Messi managed to achieve”.
Branding him the “new king of football”, it continued: 'In fact, at just 19 years of age, Lamine Yamal has just become the youngest winner in the history of the Ballon d'Or, which was established in 1956.
“To truly appreciate the scale of his achievement, one need only recall that not even Lionel Messi – the record holder for the most trophies – had managed to win the Ballon d'Or at that age.
“The Argentine star won it for the first time in 2009, when he was 22 years and 160 days old.
“The all-time record for the youngest winner, until this magical evening in London, belonged to Ronaldo Nazário, who won the Ballon d'Or at the age of 21 years and 92 days.
“Now, this historic record belongs to the new king of football and the brand-new winner of the most prestigious trophy on the planet.
“It belongs to Lamine Yamal Nasraoui Ebana.”
The ceremony gets underway at 8pm GMT with the Ballon d’Or winner set to be crowned around 9:45pm GMT.