Kylian Mbappe believes he should have won the Ballon d’Or in 2018 and he was only denied the 2023 award because France lost the World Cup final in a penalty shootout.
A new report in L’Equipe detailing why being named the world's best player remains a focus for the Real Madrid star says that he has privately claimed he should have been given the award in 2018 rather than now team-mate Luka Modric. Argentina legend Lionel Messi, who was on the winning side in Qatar, won the 2023 prize.
“Mbappe’s quest for this individual reward is such that the Frenchman feels able to meet all the challenges with the white jersey on his back,” L’Equipe’s report says. “Privately, he believes that the 2018 Ballon d'Or should have been rewarded to him and he tells himself that the 2023 one escaped him for a penalty shootout during which he had transformed his team’s fortunes [by scoring a hat-trick].”
Mbappe has 14 goals in 25 appearances for Real since joining from Paris Saint-Germain last summer.
While Liverpool star Mohamed Salah is the early favourite to win the 2025 Ballon d’Or and it has been suggested Real may snub the ceremony because they were so deeply offended by Vinicius Jr being overlooked instead of Manchester City's Rodri, Mbappe is still confident he has a good chance of individual glory.
L’Equipe added: “By shining with Real, he understood that everything would be done to make him the chosen one, even though the management of the merengue club declared that ’the Ballon d'Or no longer existed’ in their eyes, angry by the latest awards. Mbappe has everything, however, to resurrect him in the Spanish capital.”
Real lead La Liga by two points at the halfway stage but Carlo Ancelotti’s men are 20th in the Champions League and may need wins in their final two fixtures to skip the play-off round.
They came from behind late on to win dramatically away to Valencia as the league resumed following its Christmas break on Friday with Modric equalising four minutes from time before Jude Bellingham grabbed a winner in the 96th minute. Hugo Duro had put Valencia in front at Mestalla after Vinicius was shown a red card at 1-0.