Ballon d'Or 2026: Dhorasoo criticizes Mbappé for complacency despite record-breaking season

Three days before the 2026 Ballon d’Or ceremony, scheduled for Monday evening in London, Kylian Mbappé is the favorite after a record-breaking season — La Liga’s top scorer, Champions League’s top scorer and the World Cup’s all-time leading scorer. But for Vikash Dhorasoo, the case is far from flawless.

The former France international, consultant for L’Équipe du Soir, acknowledges that the Real Madrid striker (27) benefits from favorable circumstances: his direct rivals, Lamine Yamal and Harry Kane, have not ticked all the boxes either. But he refuses to see in this victory by default a reason for satisfaction for the France captain.

“He’s content with scoring goals, and since the others haven’t met all the criteria, he thinks he can have it,” Dhorasoo analyzes. According to him, Mbappé should himself point out the contradiction: no major trophy in two years, neither with Real Madrid nor with France, yet an acknowledged candidacy for football’s most coveted award.

“That’s not enough,” the former midfielder concludes. “I might give it to him, but I think the ambition he must have needs to be extremely high, even stronger than just breaking records and scoring goals. There’s something that doesn’t add up in what he’s presenting.”

Dhorasoo goes further in setting the standard he expects from a player of his caliber: “A player like him must excel at everything — that means scoring goals and winning titles — but he’s not doing that. He remains a player who fascinates me, but…” The sentence hangs in the air, much like the verdict the international jury will deliver Monday evening in London.