Kane prematurely announced as Ballon d'Or winner – but he wasn't only one

Harry Kane's dream of winning the Ballon d'Or seemed as if it had come true on Monday when the organisers released an article claiming he had won the award. Harry Kane could become the first Englishman since 2001 to win the Ballon d'Or 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 widespread sharing of the article caused confusion online, with some wondering whether France Football – the organisers of the award – had fallen short at the final hurdle of keeping the winner, who was voted for by journalists at the end of September, under wraps. That was until further digging on the Ballon d'Or website revealed that some of the other favourites to win the award – Barcelona's Lamine Yamal, Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe, and Lionel Messi of Inter Miami – had also had similar pieces penned and published about them. Just before 17:40 BST, the articles about