Yamal family bluff, accidentally published articles, blocked red carpet… Behind the scenes of the (crazy) 2026 Ballon d'Or evening

Harry Kane won the 2026 Ballon d'Or at a chaotic London ceremony marred by accidental article leaks, red carpet delays, and technical glitches.

The 70th Ballon d'Or ceremony took place Monday evening at London's Palladium, with Harry Kane claiming the award. However, the event was plagued by organisational mishaps from the start.

Crowding issues forced security to struggle with crowd control on the red carpet, while player transport was delayed by over an hour as organisers scrambled to finalise arrangements. Technical problems mounted when the external contractor managing the official website accidentally published preview articles announcing Kane's victory, along with pieces for Kylian Mbappé and Lamine Yamal, roughly 10 minutes before the ceremony began. The articles were meant to be held in reserve for whichever player won, but the premature publication sparked tensions among other clubs whose top-10 nominees didn't receive similar advance coverage.

The website contractor worked frantically to remove the articles, though the damage was done—the leaked content confirmed the top three finishers. A network outage then forced the broadcast to cut to commercials. The ceremony itself started 40 minutes late, blamed on London traffic and a delayed departure from Barcelona's delegation.