Ballon d'Or Website Leak Declares Kane, Mbappé AND Yamal Winners Before London Ceremony
Football fans thought the secret was out on Monday when the Ballon d'Or's official website appeared to publish an article declaring Harry Kane the 2026 winner, hours before the trophy was due to be handed over in London. Screenshots of the piece, praising the Bayern Munich striker's strikes from a 61-goal season, spread rapidly across social media, and England supporters began celebrating what looked like confirmation.
The celebrations did not last long. Similar winner articles soon surfaced for two other leading contenders: one hailed Kylian Mbappé for consistency at the very highest level, while another declared that Lamine Yamal had set an unprecedented record. With three different champions announced by the same website, it became clear that no leak had settled anything. The pages had reportedly been prepared in advance for each possible outcome and were quickly taken down.
The ceremony itself takes place at the London Palladium, with the main event starting at 8pm GMT on Monday. France Football had already counted down the men's ranking from 30th to 11th, with Jude Bellingham 11th and Declan Rice 15th, before the final ten were revealed on stage. Kane went into the night as the bookmakers' favourite after a remarkable scoring season, while the CIES Football Observatory's data ranking tipped Yamal, the 19-year-old who won the World Cup with Spain and La Liga with Barcelona. Until the winner is announced on stage, the only confirmed result is confusion itself.
Source: read more
Comments
Post a Comment