Mbappé led Ballon d'Or race before Kane overtook him due to media overexposure

Kylian Mbappé led Harry Kane for much of the 2025 Ballon d’Or race before being caught and overtaken in the final votes by Bayern Munich’s striker. Vincent Garcia, the trophy’s organizer, confirmed that the final gap between the two players was smaller than the 41 points that separated Rodri from Vinicius Jr in 2024.

This reversal was not insignificant. According to Garcia’s revelations, the communication strategy deployed around Mbappé — multiple media appearances, calculated omnipresence — produced the opposite effect from what was intended. A jury member who remained undecided for two weeks between Kane, Lamine Yamal and Mbappé ultimately voted for the Englishman. His justification was unequivocal: “The truth is on the pitch.”

This voter explicitly cited his fatigue with the “media hype orchestrated around Mbappé and Yamal” to explain his choice. A testimony that illustrates the limits of a campaign designed to influence the vote, but which apparently irritated part of the jury rather than convince it.

The Ballon d’Or is therefore no longer decided solely on statistics. Public image, posture and the way a player occupies media space now enter the equation — sometimes to the detriment of those who overdo it. Mbappé, despite leading for most of the vote, learned this bitter lesson.