Ballon d'Or Night in London: Leaked Pages, Traffic Delays and a Messi No-Show
The 2026 Ballon d’Or ceremony, football’s most-watched individual prize night, was held in London on Tuesday and started about half an hour behind schedule. Organizers blamed traffic congestion, with the broadcast pushed to 4:30 a.m. Beijing time. The delay set the tone for an evening that had already been disrupted before the red carpet finished.
Earlier in the day, pages naming Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe and Lamine Yamal as winners briefly appeared online. France Football, which runs the award, said the articles had been written in advance for every nominee in case they won and were published by mistake. The statement stressed that the leak did not reveal anything about the top three, which remained secret until the ceremony. All three pages were taken down.
Arsenal brought a sizable delegation. Defender Gabriel Magalhaes, winger Bukayo Saka, goalkeeper David Raya and women’s players Alessia Russo and Caldentey attended, along with sporting director Andrea Berta and manager Mikel Arteta. The club also celebrated three players in the top 30: Declan Rice at No. 15, Gabriel at No. 21 and William Saliba at No. 29, pictured together with the Premier League trophy.
Barcelona sent a five-person group led by president Joan Laporta and vice-president Rafa Yuste, with players Lamine Yamal, Rodri and Joan Garcia. Yamal, still a teenager, is widely expected to collect the Kopa Trophy for the best young player and is also among the favorites for the main prize. He arrived with his girlfriend during the red carpet segment.
Brazilian legend Ronaldo, a past winner, was on hand as a presenter. Asked whom he had voted for, he smiled and said the job of handing out the trophy meant everyone would simply have to wait and see. Lionel Messi, 39 years and four months old and a top-10 finisher this year, did not travel. He had recently been in Spain for the Princess of Asturias Awards and then flew to New York, and chose to skip the London trip. Messi has been nominated 17 times and won the award eight times, most recently in 2021 and 2023, and his absence comes in the award’s 70th-anniversary year.
The evening also carried a domestic note. Paris Saint-Germain forward Ferran Torres received the UNFP Ligue 1 Player of the Month trophy for September after scoring twice in three league games. And on the pitch, Real Madrid’s 2-1 Clasico win at Barcelona was shadowed by an incident in the 87th minute, when video circulated appearing to show a fan striking midfielder Eduardo Camavinga with a flagpole during celebrations of Mbappe’s winner. La Liga said it would report the matter to its disciplinary committee.
The Ballon d’Or remains the sport’s most prestigious individual honor, and the annual ceremony has become a global television event as much as a football one. This year’s edition showed how quickly a carefully staged night can be knocked off script, first by a publishing error and then by a city’s traffic. The winners themselves, at least, stayed under wraps until the envelopes were opened.