With the nominees for the 2026 edition of the Ballon d’Or revealed, a heated rivalry has formed between those who back Harry Kane and those who think Kylian Mbappé should win. Bayern Munich and Real Madrid fans obviously back their respective horses, but there has been an increasingly vicious fight to win the popularity contest before judges cast their vote.
Here is where Fabrizio Romano comes in. The former transfer insider has transcended his status as a journalist and turned into a news aggregator
and mouthpiece for whatever narrative player agents want to feed him. His feed is a mix of general news and suspiciously specific quotes. You may think that’s irrelevant, until you realize how MASSIVE Romano is. His tweets reach millions more users than any football club or newspaper, and he has the power to craft a narrative to his liking.
Here are some numbers for you:
- This month alone, Romano has tweeted about Mbappé and the Ballon d’Or no less than EIGHT times. Each of those tweets got more than 1m views, with one getting over 5m.
- By contrast, Harry Kane has gotten only THREE mentions, one being a quote by Ousmane Dembélé that mentions Mbappé too.
In addition to this, the number of mentions of Kane are basically nonexistent on the account, compared to generous praise and coverage for the Real Madrid frontman. No mention of Lothar Matthäus or several England legends backing Kane. So it’s important when a few voices break through the noise and put themselves in front of Fabrizio’s prodigious audience.
1.4 million views on that tweet and counting. A large profile Premier League star backing his England teammate was enough to force Fabrizio to share a tweet, if only to capture the eyeballs of passing Arsenal fans.
While betting sites still give Kane the advantage, the lead has been slipping in the last 24 hours. Madrid and Mbappé have worked overtime to push the narrative that a player who won nothing and scored less goals deserves to win over Harry Kane.
The battle will rage on for the next month or so, as France Football collects their votes. Kane has an incredible amount of support behind him this time, getting England legends and English newspapers to join the chorus of Bayern Munich related voices in the public sphere. The award is a popularity poll in the end, and this is being fought to the bitter end.
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