Mbappé favourite for 2026 Ballon d'Or in RC Strasbourg dressing room, Rodri overlooked

Kylian Mbappé leads an informal poll conducted among RC Strasbourg players as the 2026 Ballon d’Or ceremony approaches, scheduled for Monday, 26 October in London. Top scorer in La Liga, the UEFA Champions League and the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the Frenchman has nevertheless won no collective trophy this season with Real Madrid or the French national team.

The Alsatian club, particularly international in its composition, offers an eclectic panel of votes. Ismaël Doukouré, a former French U-21 international, cites Mbappé as his first choice while mentioning Ousmane Dembélé. Costa Rican Jeyland Mitchell, young Tyrese Noubissie and Gessime Yassine complete the Madrid player’s camp. The latter, captain of the Morocco national team Achraf Hakimi topping his list, cuts through with his Marseille accent: “It’s Mbappé who’ll take it, he’s too strong.”

Lionel Messi also collects four votes. Argentines Joaquin Martinez and Mateo Del Blanco, who hails him as “the best in history”, unsurprisingly vote for La Pulga. Senegalese Pape Demba Diop and Jeyland Mitchell — who cited both Mbappé and Messi — complete this contingent. Lamine Yamal, the other big name of this edition, receives the votes of Portuguese Dario Essugo and Swede Genesis Antwi. Only Giovanni Reyna, American international playing in Germany since 2019, mentions Harry Kane. Rodri, the defending champion, is not cited by any Strasbourg player.

The race for the 2026 Ballon d’Or remains open according to observers. The official vote is entrusted to one hundred international journalists selected by France Football — one representative per country in the FIFA top 100 ranking — who each draw up a top 10. The first criterion retained for the award is “individual performances: the decisive and impressive character of the player”. Rodri and Messi, despite their World Cup performances, have had more subdued seasons at club level, which complicates their case with the jury.