Three Ballon d’Or winner pages reportedly removed before ceremony

The official Ballon d’Or website reportedly published and then removed three articles naming different players as the 2026 men’s winner before the ceremony began in London on October 26. The pages named Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappé and Lamine Yamal, but their appearance did not establish who won the award. The ceremony at the London Palladium was scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. GMT, with the men’s winner expected at about 10 p.m. The reported removals came before the event, and the supplied reporting does not establish an official result. The 2026 ceremony marked the award’s 70th anniversary and was being held in London for the first time, according to the published schedule. The three players were widely identified as leading contenders, though their cases rested on different achievements. Kane, England’s captain, scored 61 goals in 51 appearances for Bayern Munich, according to live ceremony coverage. A separate season-wide tally put his total at 73 goals for club and country in 2025-26. Bayern won the Bundesliga and German Cup, while England finished third at the World Cup. Yamal, representing Barcelona and Spain, won La Liga and the World Cup, and had 41 goal involvements for...