Lizarazu refuses to vote for Mbappé for 2026 Ballon d'Or due to lack of trophies

Kylian Mbappé does not deserve the 2026 Ballon d’Or according to Bixente Lizarazu, who believes a player without a title in the season cannot aspire to the supreme individual award. The 1998 World Cup winner, consultant for Téléfoot, expressed this position on Sunday, as the ceremony for the 70th edition of the trophy is scheduled for October 26 in London.

Yet despite being La Liga’s top scorer and World Cup 2026 top scorer, the Real Madrid player has not lifted any collective trophy this year. A record insufficient in Lizarazu’s eyes: “You can’t give the Ballon d’Or to someone who won nothing in the season.”

The player favored by the former French international is Fabian Ruiz. The Paris Saint-Germain midfielder had an exceptional 2026 season in terms of titles: UEFA Champions League, Trophée des Champions and Ligue 1 with PSG, then World Cup glory with Spain. On Sunday, the player himself declared on Téléfoot that he imagined succeeding Ousmane Dembélé on the honors list.

Lizarazu readily concedes that Fabian Ruiz is not the most flamboyant player to watch. “He’s a player who isn’t spectacular, but who is very, very effective. When you watch him play, your eyes might not light up the way they do watching Lamine Yamal or Kylian Mbappé. But I think you absolutely have to value titles.” For the former left-back, the fact of being the only player to have won both the UEFA Champions League and the World Cup in 2026 is a decisive argument: “It’s already exceptional. He’s the only one who did it.”

The question of weighting individual performances against collective honors remains at the heart of the Ballon d’Or debate, and the Mbappé case — prolific scorer but without a trophy — crystallizes this tension a few weeks before the London ceremony.