Dembélé's Ballon d'Or jab at Mbappé was carefully orchestrated

Ousmane Dembélé’s comments on Sunday evening, after Paris Saint-Germain’s victory at Brest (0-1), were anything but improvised. When asked about the 2026 Ballon d’Or race, the PSG forward delivered a pointed reply to Kylian Mbappé, who had stated the day before in France Football that he had “always been seen as the chosen one”.

According to commentator Daniel Riolo, PSG’s communications team and the player’s entourage had carefully prepared the intervention. Before kickoff, club representatives reportedly laid down conditions: “He comes to the microphone, but you must ask him a question about the Ballon d’Or, otherwise he won’t come.” The choice of the word “chosen one”, echoing Mbappé’s remarks directly, confirms the calculated nature of the sequence.

Behind this communications operation looms the figure of Moussa Sissoko, Dembélé’s influential agent and adviser to several other talents, including Désiré Doué and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. “He’s an agent who carries weight. He’s very important in French football today,” journalist Walid Acherchour emphasized.

For Riolo, the war of words between the two camps is explained by the considerable financial stakes attached to the individual trophy. “It drives entourages crazy, because the Ballon d’Or means money, contracts,” he summed up, describing Sissoko as someone who “calls his journalist friends, gets his little messages out” to promote his players against the campaign orchestrated by Mbappé’s entourage.

This media-driven exchange comes at a delicate moment: Dembélé and Mbappé are set to reunite on Monday at Clairefontaine for the France national team gathering, under the direction of Zinedine Zidane.