Silly question, but how many Ballons d’Or are there this year? On Monday, a few hours before the ceremony in London, at the London Palladium, three articles briefly appeared online. One for Harry Kane, one for Lamine Yamal, one for Kylian Mbappé. Each of them won. One of the headlines read: “Harry Kane wins the 2026 Ballon d’Or: here are his most spectacular and important goals this year”.
I opened a new tab in my notebook. It’s called “Where?”. Because according to Walfoot, it was on the official Ballon d’Or site, and according to HLN, on the site of France Football, the organiser. So even the location of the mistake has two versions. I wrote down both, at the same height.
Then I understood the system, and I admire it a little. According to Walfoot and HLN, these articles are prepared in advance, so that the right winner can go online the moment the result is announced. So you write every possible winner, and you publish one. It’s like revising every chapter and getting only one in the exam. Except here, all three papers went to the teacher.
According to Walfoot, Kane, Yamal and Mbappé are the only names announced by mistake. So I have another question: were there only three drafts? Or only three that slipped out? I checked, and actually nobody says.
The journalist Romain Molina summed it up: “Either it’s a mistake or it’s bad timing, but in any case, it’s the official site…” I copied the three dots too.
And meanwhile, the ranking was coming out drip by drip all day, according to Walfoot via L’Equipe, co-organiser and sponsor. In the women’s ranking, Belgium’s Tessa Wullaert, one of the thirty nominees, finishes 19th. “At first I couldn’t believe it. I thought: maybe there are a hundred nominees?”, she told HLN. She was recounting too.
Three winners on the same day, Louise. That’s historic. I’m weighing my words.
In basketball, the MVP is announced once. I looked. Anyway, I still have a lot to learn.
It’s true, we checked: HLN.
