Papin criticizes Mbappé's Ballon d'Or campaign and prefers Kane

Jean-Pierre Papin has harshly criticized Kylian Mbappé’s communication strategy around the Ballon d’Or, less than two weeks before the ceremony scheduled for October 26 at London Palladium.

“Kylian, I like him a lot, he’s a man of records. But at some point, it’s ‘me, me, me and me’,” said the 1991 Ballon d’Or winner. “You become Ballon d’Or, you can’t always say you want to. It’s others who decide.” For JPP, the Real Madrid striker crossed a line in his campaign, despite an impressive statistical record: top scorer at the World Cup, the Ligue des Champions and La Liga.

“In his communication, at some point it was: ‘No one but me deserves the Ballon d’Or’. It was too much for me,” Papin continued, successor to Raymond Kopa and Michel Platini on the honor roll. “Today, when you look at how the Ballon d’Or is awarded, there are all sorts of criteria and that criterion doesn’t work for Kylian. The rest, everything is fine.”

The former Olympique Marseille and France striker prefers Harry Kane. The Englishman, European Golden Boot winner thanks to his 36 goals scored in the Bundesliga last season, has JPP’s favor: “Harry Kane, there’s nothing wrong today.”

English bookmakers, meanwhile, see a duel between Kane and Lamine Yamal for the sport’s supreme award.