Ballon d'Or: France Football's incredible blunder

If that happens to me, I’m getting fired. Signed: the author of this piece.

The 2026 Ballon d’Or winner will be revealed this Monday, October 26, at around 10:45 p.m., but France Football may have spoiled the suspense a little too soon!

Shortly after 6:30 p.m., three articles announcing wins for Lamine Yamal, Kylian Mbappé and Harry Kane were accidentally published on the organizer’s website. Cue social media going wild!

The most likely explanation? Drafts prepared in advance to react quickly to the final result, published at the wrong time. The question remains, though: why did these three players get their own articles…

At OneFootball, we prepare our drafts in advance too. But we promise we won’t tell you which players we’ve prepared something for this Monday evening, hehe…

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇫🇷 here.