For a second, it appeared as if Harry Kane’s desires of profitable the Ballon d’Or had come true.
It was shortly after 17:15 GMT on Monday when an article from the award’s official web site titled “Harry Kane wins the 2026 Ballon d’Or” started to flow into on-line.
It was greater than 4 and a half hours earlier than the winner of the sport’s most prestigious particular person award was as a consequence of be introduced at a star-studded occasion at London’s Palladium Theatre.
The widespread sharing of the article precipitated confusion on-line, with some questioning whether or not France Soccer – the organisers of the award – had fallen quick on the closing hurdle of preserving the winner, who was voted for by journalists on the finish of September, underneath wraps.
That was till additional digging on the Ballon d’Or web site revealed that a number of the different favourites to win the award – Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal, Actual Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe, and Lionel Messi of Inter Miami – had additionally had comparable items penned and revealed about them.
It’s unclear whether or not the preliminary article about Kane was revealed by mistake and whether or not the following publication of the remaining articles was a part of a damage-control train
Simply earlier than 17:40 BST, the articles about Kane and Mbappe had been faraway from the web site.
Related articles had been additionally written about London Metropolis Lionesses star Alexia Putellas and Barcelona’s Ewa Pajor, who’re two of the favourites for the corresponding girls’s award, additionally happening on Monday night time.
If Kane is to understand his dream and turn into the primary Englishman to win the award since 2001, he should wait a little bit longer to search out out.
