The announcement may be surprising at first, but ultimately there is a form of logic. Even though he is going through one of the most difficult periods of his career, Kylian Mbappé received this week the trophy for French player of the 2023-2024 season, awarded by the magazine France Football.
The Bondynois was rewarded for his last season. And even if Paris Saint-Germain did not achieve their goals in the Champions League, even if Mbappé had a difficult Euro 2024, the current Real Madrid player still finished top scorer and best player in Ligue 1 , top scorer in the Coupe de France, and co-top scorer in the Champions League. Over the same period, he ranked 6th in the voting for the Ballon d’Or.
Mbappé voted for Saliba
Unlike the Ballon d’Or, the vote was not carried out among a panel of journalists, since it was the former winners of the trophy who were invited to elect their successor. In a fairly close vote, Mbappé, with 56 points, narrowly beat William Saliba (51 points). The Bondynois, already rewarded three times (2018, 2019 and 2022-2023), had also placed the Arsenal defender at the top of his podium, ahead of Eduardo Camavinga and Aurélien Tchouameni, his new teammates at Real Madrid.
Behind Mbappé and Saliba, the podium is completed by Mike Maignan. Antoine Griezmann finished in sixth place, tied with Brest’s Pierre Lees-Melou. Note that Mbappé did not grant an interview to France Football for the occasion. The player, who chose to speak on Canal+ in the show Clicksimply came to collect his trophy during a photo shoot.
