Kylian Mbappé's Ballon d'Or Struggle: Individual Brilliance vs Team Success
Kylian Mbappé is scoring at a rate that belongs in a different era. The trophies, though, still haven’t caught up.
The France captain has just come off another absurd season in front of goal for Real Madrid: 42 strikes, a second Pichichi in La Liga, and a World Cup that pushed him into territory no Frenchman has ever reached. He now stands alone as his country’s all-time leading scorer with 66 goals, and nobody has scored more often at the World Cup, his tally at FIFA’s showpiece climbing to a remarkable 22.
On paper, that is Ballon d’Or material. On the podium, it may not be.
While Mbappé keeps rewriting individual records, the big collective prizes continue to slip away. That imbalance is why many expect him to slide again in the Ballon d’Or voting, as the cases of Harry Kane, Rodri, Lamine Yamal and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia gather strength on the back of major silverware and team dominance.
Mbappé has not been shy about how he sees it. He has spoken publicly about why he believes the “best player on the planet” tag should finally land on his shoulders. Those words, though, are grating on some of those who once wore the France shirt.
“Everything he does feels like it’s for himself”
Frank Leboeuf, World Cup winner in 1998 and never one to duck a blunt opinion, has drawn a sharp contrast between Mbappé and his Clasico rival Raphinha, who has 14 goals this season while leading the line at Camp Nou.
“Nobody can say Raphinha is a better number nine than Kylian Mbappe because this is the first time Raphinha is playing as a number nine, whereas Mbappe has been playing as a number nine and consistently scoring goals for almost 10 years,” Leboeuf told GOAL, speaking in association with Mr Gamble.
The numbers aren’t the issue. The perception is.
“However, everything Mbappe does on the field feels like it's for himself, whereas with Raphinha, you feel everything he does is for the team. That's the problem,” Leboeuf said.
The trigger for his frustration is clear: Mbappé’s open campaigning for the Ballon d’Or.
“When Mbappe says he wants to win the Ballon d'Or, that says it all. That is my concern. You should never talk about the Ballon d'Or like that. Going into the media to express his wish and willingness to win the Ballon d'Or is annoying because it proves his critics right.
“They think he's selfish, and he is showing that. Real Madrid isn't playing well or winning games, yet he's talking about the Ballon d'Or. No, start winning games and scoring goals with your team.
“Express that you want to win La Liga and the Champions League. Stop talking about the Ballon d'Or, it's not important.”
Leboeuf knows how this will be received. He leaned into it.
“People might say I'm jealous because I didn't win the Ballon d'Or, but I'm fine. I'm fond of Kylian Mbappe, but sometimes when he talks to the media, it's not good for his image.”
The missing piece: Europe
If Mbappé is ever to end the Ballon d’Or debate in his favour, one trophy sits above all others: the Champions League. It continues to elude him. He has watched from afar as Paris Saint-Germain, the club he left, have gone back-to-back in Europe.
Real Madrid, under the returning “Special One” Jose Mourinho, do not yet look like a machine built to put that right. The early weeks of the 2026-27 season have been uneven, the performances patchy, the aura dented. A 16th European Cup feels like a long chase rather than an inevitability.
Leboeuf is not writing them off, but he is not buying into the old Madrid inevitability either.
“Real Madrid in the Champions League, it’s too early to say,” he said. “We saw Paris Saint-Germain struggle in the beginning of the season in Ligue 1 and the Champions League over the past two years, only to wake up around December and dominate everyone.
“Hopefully Mourinho will find the solution to make the team better.”
The Madrid derby at the weekend only sharpened the sense of a team and a league wrestling with deeper issues.
“At the weekend in the derby, I didn't understand how Atletico Madrid finished the game with 11 players and Real Madrid with 10. I understand why their player got sent off, but there were two red-card-worthy fouls from Atletico Madrid. I agree with Mourinho, you don't even need a post-match press conference, just show the pictures and that says it all.
“VAR officials in England, France, and Spain need to wake up because it's not working.”
Mourinho versus the modern dressing room
Results are one thing. Dressing-room chemistry is another. Mourinho has built his reputation on bending squads to his will, on forging a siege mentality and turning talented teams into ruthless ones. Leboeuf wonders if that formula can still work in this era, and with this group.
“We knew when Mourinho came in that it would take time to settle down, and we don't know yet if it's going to work,” he said. “With the egos in the dressing room and the mentality of the players, even for someone with a strong character like Mourinho, it's going to be very difficult to fix what is going wrong at Real Madrid.”
To underline the contrast, Leboeuf points across the Clasico divide.
“Barcelona has a culture of playing together that has been there since Johan Cruyff or even before. For 50 or 60 years at Barcelona, the main principle has been to play together, despite having individual talent. [Pep] Guardiola maintained that, [Ronald] Koeman maintained that, and Hansi Flick does that now.
“Even if they don't focus as much on defending, they score so many goals that it's impossible to cope with them. That's a beautiful, entertaining game.”
Mourinho, of course, has never tried to copy that blueprint.
“We know Mourinho wants to play a different style. When he came back in 2013, he changed the mentality and made Real Madrid win by being tough and aggressive, which is acceptable in football.
“It takes time to return to that mindset, and I don't know if Mourinho is capable of repeating what he did in 2013. Hopefully for him, Real Madrid, and the fans, he can. But I have my doubts given the current generation of players he has, as it's hard to change that selfish mindset.”
Somewhere inside that last line sits Mbappé’s dilemma. He is the most devastating finisher of his generation, a record-breaker for club and country, and yet still fighting to convince the world he is more than a one-man show.
If he wants the Ballon d’Or, Leboeuf’s message is brutal in its simplicity: stop talking about it, start dragging your team to the trophies that make the argument for you.
