There are not many opinions in football that Madridistas will stop and read the way they read Toni Kroos's, and there has rarely been a less comfortable week for him to offer one. In a World Cup summer that has left the Ballon d'Or race as open as it has been in years, the former Real Madrid midfielder was asked a simple question: who should win it? He did not say Kylian Mbappé. He did not say Jude Bellingham or Vinícius Júnior either. He named Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, and he named him without a flicker of hesitation.
Speaking to the media, in comments reported by the journalist Florian Malburg and relayed by Madrid Universal, the German was unusually blunt about an award Real Madrid have grown used to collecting. It matters because his reasoning doubles as a brutal audit of the season the Bernabéu's biggest names have just had.
Why Toni Kroos went for Kvaratskhelia in the Ballon d'Or debate
Kroos did not hedge, and did not pretend his pick was likely to win.
The Ballon d'Or should go to Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. He's probably not going to win but he's the number 1 without hesitation.
Toni Kroos, via Florian Malburg and Madrid Universal
His argument is the old one about what the award is for. A Ballon d'Or is handed out for a season, not a month of international football, and his reading of the season was ruthless. “The best World Cup players: Messi, Jude, Mbappé, Rodri had average club seasons,” he said. “Kvara was the best player from the best club in the world.”
You can disagree with the conclusion and still see the logic. The Georgian carried Paris Saint-Germain for a full campaign; the men above him in most rankings did their best work in a tournament that ended in disappointment for all of them.
The most open Ballon d'Or race in years
The reason a pick like this can even be made is that the usual shortcut has failed. As Madrid Universal set out, Spain won the World Cup without a single bona fide overperformer, getting there on collective effort, while every team with an obvious standout individual fell short. Lionel Messi, Mbappé, Bellingham and Vinícius all had spectacular tournaments; none of them ended the summer with the trophy.
Among the Spanish contingent, Rodri was the outstanding figure, but he barely played for his club last season through injury — part of the picture when Real Madrid were never fully convinced by a move for him. Lamine Yamal shone for Barcelona and was rather less effective in the World Cup, which is its own kind of answer to José Mourinho's verdict on him earlier this month. Take away the tournament and the club season, and there is no consensus left to lean on.
Where that leaves Kylian Mbappé
For Real Madrid, the practical point is that Mbappé is the only player at the club with a realistic route to the award, and Madrid Universal note that some outlets already have the Frenchman as favourite. On individual output they have a case: he was the one unambiguously good thing about last season at the Bernabéu.
The problem is everything around him. Real Madrid finished 2025-26 without a trophy for the first time since 2020-21, and voters who weigh team success will find that hard to look past — which is exactly the hole Kroos put his finger in. Winning this as the best individual in a side that underachieved is a far harder sell than it was in the years when Kroos was collecting medals himself.
None of which makes the German a traitor. Real Madrid have kept him close since he retired — we looked in April at the strategic role the club were reported to be offering him — and blunt honesty was always his defining trait in white.
The neat thing about Kroos's answer is how quickly it can be made irrelevant. A new season starts for Los Blancos at Espanyol on Saturday night, and Mbappé has nine months to make the argument on the pitch instead. Win everything under Mourinho and nobody will be quoting this verdict next summer.
