SportsCatch
EN

Ballon d'Or 2026: Only One Person Knows the Winner Before the Ceremony

Four days before the ceremony at London Palladium, the name of the Ballon d'Or 2026 winner remains a closely guarded secret. Only Vincent Garcia, editor-in-chief of France Football, already knows the result.

1 min read
Ballon d'Or 2026: Only One Person Knows the Winner Before the Ceremony
Share

Four days before the Ballon d’Or ceremony, scheduled for London Palladium in London, the name of the winner remains one of the best-kept secrets in world football. Lamine Yamal and Harry Kane are announced as the two major favorites, while Kylian Mbappé, the main outsider, is at a serious disadvantage: no major title won during the past season.

According to available information, only one person knows with certainty the identity of the winner at this stage: Vincent Garcia, editor-in-chief of France Football, the magazine that founded and organizes the award. Marc Las, responsible for the editorial and television design of the ceremony, will be informed of the result in the hours preceding the event, for logistical reasons only.

The nominated players, including the favorites, are not informed in advance. This strict confidentiality protocol was established in 2024 after several leaks occurred in previous years. It notably helped preserve the suspense during Rodri’s election that year, a triumph that caught much of public opinion off guard.

Share
{# Sitewide native fullscreen interstitial — our own bet-CTA card blown up to a takeover (replaces the SDK overlay). The shared card animations + countdown load once, AFTER the interstitial markup, so the countdown script's first tick sees this card's node too (the in-read card, in
above, already exists). One include covers both surfaces. #}