Luis Enrique Demands Désiré Doué's Inclusion in Ballon d'Or 30-Man Shortlist

Luis Enrique took a stance on the 2026 Ballon d’Or race ahead of PSG’s trip to Marseille, publicly demanding a place in the 30-man shortlist for Désiré Doué, who was absent from the selection published on September 8 by France Football.

Paris Saint-Germain placed ten players among the 30 candidates for the trophy, including defending champion Ousmane Dembélé, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Fabian Ruiz. The latter won the World Cup with Spain, a weighty criterion in the award’s attribution, unlike Kvaratskhelia, who did not participate in the tournament.

When asked about the club’s strategy, the Spanish manager was direct: “Winning major trophies, that’s the strategy. We haven’t decided anything as a club. We’re very happy to have ten players in the world’s top 30. If we had the chance to decide, we’d also like to put Désiré Doué. Why isn’t he there? We deserve to win this trophy. Our mentality is to protect all our players. We hope it will be a PSG player, whoever it is.”

Luis Enrique was also questioned about Doué’s situation, who recently lost his starting place to Ferran Torres. The manager was keen to defend his player unambiguously: “He’s an incredible player, it’s a real pleasure to have a player with his mentality. He was a starter most of the time and I’m very happy with what I’ve seen. There are ups and downs for all players, but he’s a different kind of player.”

With no clear favourite emerging yet in this 2026 edition, Kylian Mbappé and Lamine Yamal are among the most cited names outside PSG. For the Paris club, the challenge is twofold: perform collectively to weigh in the selection criteria, and hope that one of its ten representatives prevails in the final stretch.