2026 Ballon d’Or winner ‘leaks’ cause fan meltdown hours before official announcement

The winner of the 2026 Ballon d’Or was announced early on the award’s official website…

However, fans were left confused after France Football published that Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe and Lamine Yamal had all won the prestigious gong. The posts have since been deleted.

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This year’s recipient is set to be officially announced on Monday night in a ceremony at the London Palladium.

The ceremony is expected to begin at 8pm, with the winner’s press conference scheduled for 10:30pm.

Kane, Mbappe and Yamal are the three leading contenders for the Ballon d’Or.

The trio are amongst 30 players nominated for their performances during the 2025/26 season.

Those nominees are being placed from 30th to fourth ahead of this evening before the top three discover their fate.

talkSPORT understands Mbappe will be named as the winner of the Ballon d’Or.

Ballon d’Or winner leaked

Prior to the awards ceremony, articles appeared on the Ballon d’Or website for each player, claiming they had ‘won’ the award.

An article detailing Kane’s 61 goals for Bayern Munich titled ‘Harry Kane wins 2026 Ballon d’Or’ was amongst those to appear online.

The England captain won the European Golden Shoe as he fired the German giants to a league and cup double last term.

Kane also scored six goals for the Three Lions as they finished third at the World Cup, their best performance since 1966.

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He is aiming to become the fifth Englishman to win the award and the first since Michael Owen 25 years ago.

Who are Kane’s Ballon d’Or rivals?

However, Mbappe’s ‘consistency personified at the very highest level’ saw him win the Ballon d’Or, according to another article that was published on the official website.

The Real Madrid forward won the World Cup golden boot after becoming the tournament’s all-time leading scorer with 10 goals this summer.

Mbappe also finished as the top scorer in both LaLiga and the Champions League last term.

Across all competitions, the France international scored 42 goals in 44 appearances for Real Madrid.

As for Yamal, the 19-year-old became a World Cup winner with Spain as well as winning LaLiga for the third time in four seasons.

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Having finished as runner-up last year, the teenager is aiming to become the youngest ever winner of the Ballon d’Or.

The current record is held by Ronaldo, who was 21 years and 96 days old when he received the award for the first time in 1997.

Yamal has previously won the Kopa Trophy, awarded to the world’s best Under-21 player, in each of the last two years and talkSPORT understands he will win it again this year.