Nuno Espirito Santo is already making headlines for the wrong reasons at West Ham United, given the abject defeat to Southampton over the weekend.

But the West Ham boss seemed to have caught some unlikely strays during the 2026 Ballon d’Or ceremony in London on Monday night.

Harry Kane won the Ballon d’Or for the first time in his career, becoming the first Englishman to do so since Michael Owen lifted that individual crown in 2021.

Regardless of what you think of Kane as a player, he is a bit of a modest character, a PR machine, so he thanked every coach he worked under during his winning speech, apart from a certain somebody sitting in West Ham’s dugout.

What did Harry Kane say during his Ballon d’Or-winning speech?

Blink, and you would have missed it, but Nuno did manage Tottenham Hotspur for a brief period in 2021 when Kane was still at Spurs.

The under-fire West Ham boss was sacked after less than four months in charge, but he still got to work with Kane for a small period of time.

Despite that, the deadpan Nuno wasn’t mentioned during Kane’s Ballon d’Or-winning speech, with many names getting a mention, and it caught the eye of those on social media.

“I want to give a shoutout to some of my coaches who have helped me along the way, and if I’ve forgotten anyone, I’m really sorry, but I’ll start from early days,” said Kane.

“Bradley Allen, Chris Ramsey, John McDermott – who’s here tonight; Alex Inglethorpe, Tim Sherwood, and Ryan Mason – who’s here tonight, one of my best friends; Kenny Jackett, Russell Slade, Harry Redknapp, Mauricio Pochettino, Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte, and then Roy Hodgson, Gareth Southgate, and of course, my two managers, Vinnie and Thomas now.”

This shouldn’t be a surprise to West Ham fans…

Some coaches adhere to their supporters and the players they work under; it’s pretty clear Nuno isn’t in that boat.

West Ham’s defeat to Southampton over the weekend was a prime example of that, as was the return of James Ward-Prowse.

When Ward-Prowse was on-loan at Nottingham Forest, and when Nuno hardly used him at West Ham, he seemed to have the last laugh at the expense of his former coach.

Ward-Prowse seemed to take a swipe at Nuno for how he was treated at the London Stadium, as he played a key role in his Saints side picking up all three points.