The verdict for the 2026 Ballon d’Or is slowly but surely getting closer. While waiting for the ceremony scheduled for October 26, the various candidates have more or less entered the campaign. At the forefront of these, Kylian Mbappé is doing his best to convince voters of the merits of voting for him. Among observers, however, some express some reservations.
Journalist at France Football and member of the committee in charge of nominating the thirty players selected for the race for the Ballon d’Or, Dave Appadoo was on the set of the L’Équipe channel on Tuesday evening. The opportunity for him to ask a question about the Real Madrid striker.
“The most telling thing is that he promotes himself to be Ballon d’Or, but at no time did I feel that there was regret at not having won a trophy. That’s what struck me. »
And the columnist continues by referring to a living legend of the NBA as well as world basketball, a certain Michael Jordan. “I’m going to make an analogy with a legendary sportsman with whom he was associated somewhat unwillingly, Michael Jordan, during the famous scene with Luis Enrique. The thing about Michael Jordan is that for a long time, he was the league’s leading scorer, but he wasn’t winning a title. And the American media kept throwing it in his face: ‘Yes, but you’re not (Larry) Bird, Magic (Johnson), (Kareem) Abdul-Jabbar’. He couldn’t take this anymore because he wanted to show that he was someone who could make his team win. »
Kylian Mbappé, “it’s disturbing”
In fact, the former Chicago Bulls modified certain facets of his game, surrounded himself with players capable of taking his franchise to the title, and thus forged his legend. But for Dave Appadoo, this may never happen with Kylian Mbappé.
“I don’t feel that in Kylian Mbappé. He knows that he is the best striker, or perhaps the best player (…), but I don’t feel the heartbreak in him to say to himself: ‘I had a blank year (…), I would almost have wanted to sacrifice my stats for a Champions League, for a La Liga’. This is disturbing. »
The fact remains that the former AS Monaco and PSG player finished the year as top scorer in the Spanish championship, the Champions League and the World Cup. Enough to push the majority of members of the Ballon d’Or jury to elect him for the first time?
