Ballon d'Or: How Mbappé's Team Orchestrated His African Campaign via RFI

Kylian Mbappé conducted a meticulously orchestrated communications campaign ahead of the Ballon d’Or, specifically targeting African voters through an interview granted to RFI. Journalist Olivier Pron, who conducted the interview at Valdebebas, Real Madrid’s training centre, publicly detailed the conditions under which this meeting was organized.

According to Pron, it all started with a phone call received on a Wednesday evening: Mbappé’s entourage was looking for a media outlet capable of reaching an African audience, and RFI had been recommended to them. “Kylian Mbappé’s entourage thinks this is the right year for the Ballon d’Or. They are campaigning, they want to reach Africa,” he explained. The very next morning, a Paris-based communications agency contacted the newsroom.

Mbappé, whose father is Cameroonian and mother is Algerian, played on his African roots during the interview. “I have always felt very loved every time I set foot on the African continent. I hope to be able to leave with the Ballon d’Or to, in one way or another, dedicate it to them,” he said. African voters represent 20% of the jury.

But the exercise had its limits. Notified only the day before of the time and place of the interview, RFI’s team was unable to cover all the topics they wished to address. Several subjects were “rejected or cut during editing” at the request of Mbappé’s camp: the situation in Ceuta, the French presidential election, FIFA, Gianni Infantino and his management of the World Cup. “His communications strategy is precise, carefully prepared and sometimes censored,” Pron acknowledged.

The journalist nonetheless offered a nuanced assessment of the operation. “There will always be people to tell you that RFI served him up, that he came looking for us to convince African voters. What should we have done? Say no?” This sequence illustrates the now well-oiled mechanics of lobbying campaigns around the Ballon d’Or, where major stars multiply targeted interviews by geographic zone to maximize their chances with a global jury.