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Oct 31, 2026, 5:10 PM GMT
Marcus is a sports journalist with more than five years of experience, specializing in Football, Formula 1 and Tennis.
He was a football network writer for Reach PLC, writing for pages such as the Manchester Evening News, Liverpool Echo and Football.London.
From 2022 to 2026, Marcus worked for SPORTbible, playing a role in growing the brand’s F1 output and audience, as well as covering a wide range of sports including boxing, MMA, darts and athletics.
So far in his career, Marcus has interviewed some of the biggest names in different sports, including the likes of Max Verstappen, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ashley Cole, Jenson Button, Fred Vasseur and Tim Henman.
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Two countries nearly cost Harry Kane the 2026 Ballon d’Or trophy after reportedly leaving him out of their top 10 lists while voting for their winner.
On Monday night, during what was a star-studded event at the London Palladium, England, Bayern Munich star Kane was announced as the 2026 Ballon d’Or winner.
The 33-year-old, who scored 73 goals for club and country last season, finished ahead of Kylian Mbappe and Lamine Yamal to become the first Englishman to win the illustrious award since Michael Owen did so in 2001.
In addition to the Ballon d’Or, Kane also took home the Gerd Muller Trophy, awarded to the striker who scored the most goals. After the awards ceremony, Ballon d’Or organiser France Football released the voting details.
According to Spanish news outlet AS, France Football revealed that two countries left Kane out of their top 10.
It is believed that journalists from Mexico and Ivory Coast snubbed Kane when voting for their Ballon d’Or winner, leaving the England captain completely out of their top 10 votes.
Mbappe was omitted by three countries: Greece, Scotland and Ukraine. Yamal was snubbed by four ballots, with Belarus, Cameroon, Croatia and Greece all overlooking the Barcelona superstar.
Meanwhile, fourth-place finisher and 2024 Ballon d’Or winner Rodri was voted in first place by 10 countries, including Nigeria, the United States, Guatemala, South Korea, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Thailand, Vietnam, Croatia and Iceland.
Seeing as Kane only finished 28 points ahead of Mbappe in the overall standings, the omission of Mexico and Ivory Coast could have cost the Bayern man his historic moment.
Reacting to Kane’s Ballon d’Or win, his former Tottenham Hotspur manager Jose Mourinho said: “I had the privilege of working with Harry Kane; he is a wonderful player, an exceptional professional and a wonderful person.
“And of course, despite my feeling of frustration that my player did not win the award, I must be honest and say that I am very happy for Harry, because he is a player and a person who deserves this joy.
“At his current age, which I do not know whether it is 31 or 32 years. He deserves this happy moment, which represents a crowning of his career.”
Mourinho went on to admit that he was stunned by Jude Bellingham’s finishing position, which was 11th.
The Real Madrid boss said: “As for the voting, the thing that stunned me most and left me almost unable to speak is Jude Bellingham finishing in eleventh place. No comment; we end the discussion here.”
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