If there is one player that feels overdue for a Ballon D’or, the highest personal honor for professional footballers, it has to be Kylian Mbappe.
He burst on the scene in the 2016/17 season when he won the Ligue 1 with AS Monaco and the UEFA U-19 European Championship. Then he signed for PSG. With the Parisians, Mbappe won 15 titles between 2018 and 2023 including 6 Ligue 1 titles, 4 Coupe de France, 2 Coupe de la Ligue, and 3 Trophée des Champions.
It was during this period that he won the FIFA World Cup with France in 2018 and also the UEFA Nations League in 2021.
During all of these times, he was not just a passenger.
He was scoring goal after goal and helping the teams he played with to win. At PSG, he spent 7 seasons and it was only during his first season that he didn’t win the Ligue 1 top scorer.
Even after moving to Real Madrid, in his first season, he won the Pichichi and did it again in his second season. This is his third season at Barcelona and he already has 3 goals in 2 matches.
For goals, Mbappe is one of the most lethal players in modern day. But he has been overlooked for the Ballon D’or.
And fans wonder, why?
The Frenchman has been very impressive especially from the 2020 season until now. How has he not managed to win football’s most coveted individual honors?
The answer is not farfetched.
This is because while a lot of people are aware of the Ballon D’or being an individual honor, the award is not granted only on individual basis.
According to the image above, you can see that the criteria for winning the Ballon d’Or includes individual performances, player character and class and fair play which is something Mbappe already has.
The Frenchman scores goals, great ones and he is a model player. He is hardly ever in the midst of any chaos and his personal life feels impeccable.
The class and fair play requirement was what seemed to have disqualified Vini Jr. when Rodri won the award in 2024.
Mbappe’s issue with winning the Ballon d’Or has always been team performances and achievements.
This is where it can be tricky and confusing – why does the team need to do well before a player gets an individual award? And how well does the team have to perform before the player is considered for the award?
Those two questions cannot be answered with a definitive answer except we eventually get to speak with someone who is in the Jury that votes the player to win the award.
When Rodri won the award in 2024, he had helped Manchester City to secure 3 trophies and 1 with Spain. Dembele who is the current holder also won 4 major trophies with PSG with the Champions League being the decider in my opinion.
Clearly, you are required to have stellar performances as a player, be a class act, play fair, and your team needs to win a decent amount of trophies for you to win the Ballon d’Or.
This looks like everything that Kylian Mbappe is about except with trophies which he has lacked since he moved to Real Madrid.
While the voting cycle for the next Ballon d’Or has closed, a new one has begun and it is a chance for Kylian Mbappe to get another shot at the prestigious honor.
The next Ballon d’Or ceremony already has Harry Kane as a favorite with Mbappe, Yamal, and even Rodri trailing behind. Dembele is still a contender but his outing with France falls short of what Harry Kane and Mbappe had done in the World Cup.
But this is where Jose Mourinho comes in.
Numbers wise, Kylian Mbappe is definitely going to pull up those numbers we know him for.
Real Madrid now looks like a team that’s solid under the Special One and it is such a team as Mbappe will thrive in.
Having put that into place, Real Madrid needs to win trophies if Mbappe will win the 2027 Ballon d’Or.
Jose Mourinho has a lot of work to do and a lot has been placed on him to help salvage a Real Madrid side that hasn’t won any trophies in the last 2 seasons.
Judging from the amount of trophies previous winners have clinched before a player gets the award, Mourinho should be aiming to win the UCL, La Liga, Copa del Rey, and the Supercopa de España.
If that is done and Mbappe keeps up his numbers, he will be primed to win the Ballon d’Or.