{"id":942074,"date":"2026-10-26T23:42:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T23:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/942074\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T23:42:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T23:42:18","slug":"football-news-2026-harry-kane-wins-the-ballon-dor-victory-leaked-before-the-ceremony-alexis-putellas-wins-ballon-dor-feminin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/942074\/","title":{"rendered":"Football news 2026 | Harry Kane wins the Ballon d\u2019Or, victory leaked before the ceremony; Alexis Putellas wins Ballon d\u2019Or Feminin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harry Kane<\/a> and Alexia Putellas\u2019 historic Ballon d\u2019Or<\/a> and Ballon d\u2019Or Feminin wins were overshadowed by an untimely leak, with pre-prepared articles going live hours before the ceremony that claimed several different nominees had been crowned. <\/p>\n

Kane, a Bayern Munich<\/a> striker, became the first Englishman since 2001 to win the prestigious individual award, with Michael Owen the last to do so. Meanwhile, Putellas became the first female player to win the Ballon d\u2019Or Feminin three times. <\/p>\n

\"Articles<\/p>\n

Articles about Harry Kane and Lamine Yamal winning the Ballon d\u2019Or were published before the ceremony.\u00a0X\/@@JacobsBen<\/p>\n

Kane walked into the ceremony as the favourite to win football\u2019s top don, breaking a number of goal-scoring records in the Bundesliga and Champions League<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But fans were left confused four hours before it was announced on stage due to a mishap on the official Ballon d\u2019Or website.<\/p>\n

An article titled \u2018Harry Kane wins the 2026 Ballon d\u2019Or\u2019 was posted to the site hours before the ceremony. The exact same headline with names switched out ran above articles separately claiming Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbapp\u00e9<\/a> had won, leaving fans wondering how France Football, the magazine that organises the award, had made such a monumental mess.<\/p>\n

In a statement to the BBC, a spokesperson of the Ballon d\u2019Or admitted the prepared profiles of some nominees had \u201cinadvertently (been) published\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese articles had been prepared for all nominees and should in no way be considered as an indication of the final results or ranking,\u201d the statement read. <\/p>\n

The same shambolic issue unfolded for nominees of the Ballon d\u2019Or Feminin, with London City Lionesses Putellas and Barcelona\u2019s Ewa Pajor. <\/p>\n

Putellas put the controversy aside as she delivered a touching message to the next generation after her victory. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to play football, play football. Doesn\u2019t matter if you are a boy, if you are a girl or where you come from,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t listen to someone who tells you that you cannot do it. Just do it, believe in yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kane followed, thanking all of those who played a role in his career and admitted he was \u201cspeechless\u201d to have received the honour.<\/p>\n

Thierry Henry then praised Kane\u2019s success after the England captain concluded his list of thank yous. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Harry Kane and Alexia Putella pose with the trophies.\u00a0AP Photo\/Kin Cheung<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all debating and talking about who\u2019s supposed to win or not … but I have to say something about Harry,\u201d Henry said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen the beginning, we\u2019ve all seen the beginning, and Harry Kane is a perfect example of how work ethic is a talent. This guy had to suffer really hard to achieve what he achieved.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever it is, you are a worthy winner. Well done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kane took to the stage twice during the ceremony after he won striker of the year, with Mexico\u2019s Charlyn Corral claiming the honour in the women\u2019s category. <\/p>\n

But before all eyes turned to Kane and Putellas, everyone was left in awe of Spain\u2019s production line of talent as the nation swept the first eight awards given at the ceremony. <\/p>\n

Barcelona duo Yamal and Vicky Lopez claimed the young talent awards. Barcelona\u2019s Pere Romeu won women\u2019s coach of the year and Luis de la Fuente won men\u2019s coach of the year after leading Spain to victory at the 2026 World Cup. <\/p>\n

Barcelona\u2019s Cata Coll and Spain\u2019s Unai Simon won goalkeeper of the year before Arsenal\u2019s Bukayo Saka broke up the Spanish party and delivered a touching speech after winning the Socrates award \u2013 given to a footballer involved in humanitarian and societal work. Club of the year went to Barcelona for the women\u2019s game and the Spanish national team in the men\u2019s game. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harry Kane and Alexia Putellas\u2019 historic Ballon d\u2019Or and Ballon d\u2019Or Feminin wins were overshadowed by an untimely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":942075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-942074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=942074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/942075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}