Kylian Mbappe has stopped being coy. The full transcript of his long-awaited interview landed on Friday night, and the Mbappe Ballon d’Or pitch inside it is about as direct as a footballer can be without printing leaflets: nobody, in his view, had a better 2025/26 than he did, and he intends to say so until the votes are counted.
“I have the idea that I can win it this year. It is one of my objectives, and a short-term one — there is not long left,” he said, in quotes carried by Marca from the France Football interview. “Objectively I can understand those who vote differently. There is no dictatorship of thought. But when you analyse the arguments and the competition, it would not be unfair. Nobody had a better season last year than me.”
Asked who he would vote for, the 27-year-old did not bother with modesty. “Me,” he replied, laughing, somewhere inside a 53-minute conversation.
The Mbappe Ballon d’Or argument, in his own words
His case rests on two pillars. The first is statistical: he is now the all-time leading scorer in World Cup history, a record he points to repeatedly. “I have my arguments: being the all-time top scorer at the World Cup, thinking that at 27 I am already the player who has scored the most goals in the most important tournament in the sport, and doing it ahead of a legend like Messi,” he said.
The second is philosophical, and rather more pointed. Mbappe knows the standard objection — that he has not won a major collective trophy since arriving at the Santiago Bernabeu in the summer of 2024, as Mundo Deportivo note — and he simply rejects the premise.
“I have always believed the Ballon d’Or should reward a different kind of player,” he said. “Of course the collective component exists and it matters, because football is a team sport. But it is an individual trophy. My idea of the Ballon d’Or is the one from the Messi and Ronaldo era. They never give it to normal players, they give it to different players. And I think this year I have done different things.”
On Messi himself, still playing at 39, there was no false bravado. “I would play until I was 100, but you have to be intelligent and know when you can no longer do it. He has not had to consider it because he still can. Messi is Messi. I consider myself a different player. But he is a different player among the different players.”
Praise for Lamine Yamal — and for Arda Guler
The most eye-catching passage for Spanish readers was Mbappe’s list of the young players he rates, which began with a Barcelona name. “Among the young ones, I like Lamine Yamal. He has everything,” he said, per Mundo Deportivo. “I like Estevao, he has a special creativity. Here, Arda Guler can go very far. Endrick has potential, he is a goalscorer. Warren Zaire-Emery and Desire Doue are going to have great careers, for sure.”
That endorsement of Guler arrives in the same week the club moved to tie the Turk down to a long-term deal. Yamal, meanwhile, is Mbappe’s most credible rival for the award — which makes the compliment either generous or extremely well-calculated.
Boos, memes and Mourinho
Mbappe was also asked about the whistles that have swirled around the Bernabeu this season, and gave the answer of a man who has done his reading. “These things happen. Do you know how many players have been whistled at in Madrid? They are all still alive, aren’t they? When you sign for Madrid, you know what you are getting into. It does not affect me too much. I understand the public expressing their unhappiness.”
He drew a firmer line under the viral ‘dictator’ memes — the ‘Mobutu’ nickname that began as a dressing-room joke from France team-mate Ousmane Dembele. “Sometimes it shows a lack of political and human awareness,” he said, while exempting Dembele: “What Ousmane did is something else. He got it from social media. His is meant to make you laugh, not to hurt.”
And on his new head coach, Jose Mourinho, he was unambiguous. “He is very intelligent. His intelligence impressed me, but it does not surprise me. You do not become Mourinho if you are not like that. He knows what he is doing and where he is going.”
The gala is in London on 26 October. Mbappe is one of four Real Madrid players on the 30-man shortlist, and having spent Thursday swatting away the doubters, he has spent Friday making the case himself. Whether that is what wins Ballons d’Or is another question entirely.
