For a stretch of Monday afternoon there were three Ballon d’Or winners live on the award’s own website. Profiles crowning Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappé and Lamine Yamal all went online at the same time on ballondor.com, several hours before the ceremony began at the London Palladium.

The pieces had been drafted in advance for the leading nominees so that the real winner’s profile could go live the moment the result was announced. All of them went up at once.

France Football, which organises the award, moved to kill the story quickly.

“Some profiles of nominees prepared by BallonDor.com were inadvertently published online,” the organiser said in a statement.

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“These articles had been prepared for all nominees and should in no way be considered as an indication of the final results or rankings.”

Screenshots out before the pages came down

By the time the pages were pulled, screenshots of three different “winners” had already made the rounds on social media.

The ceremony was then pushed back by half an hour, reportedly because of a delayed arrival by the Barcelona delegation. It eventually started at 8:30pm local time instead of 8pm.

25 years since the last English winner

When the result was finally announced on stage, Harry Kane walked up for the men’s trophy. The Bayern Munich striker finished ahead of Kylian Mbappé of Real Madrid and Lamine Yamal of Barcelona on the podium, capping a 2025/26 campaign in which he scored 73 goals for club and country.

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Kane is the first English winner of the Ballon d’Or since Michael Owen in 2001, a gap of 25 years.

“Being here in London has made it extra special,” Kane told the audience in his acceptance speech.

“It was truly an honour to captain England, to lead you. This one is for all of you, for sure.”

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