Mourinho: Ballon d’Or should reward individual brilliance over trophies

Jose Mourinho says the Ballon d’Or should go to the player who produces the best individual performances rather than automatically to someone who has won the biggest team trophies.

Real Madrid face Malaga CF on Sunday in the third round of La Liga, having opened the season with victories over Espanyol and Real Sociedad.

Speaking before the match, Mourinho said there were around 12 leading contenders for the award, including three or four players from his own squad.

“The individual side of it is very beautiful because you enter history,” he said. “There are around 12 players at a very high level, and we have three or four of them. It is natural to have ambitions of this kind.

“For me, the award should go to those players we will miss forever when they retire. I miss Diego Maradona, Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Zinedine Zidane and Lothar Matthaus.

“You cannot give the Ballon d’Or simply because a player won the Champions League or the World Cup. If you want to reward winning the Champions League, give the Ballon d’Or to Luis Enrique. As for Spain, Luis de la Fuente certainly deserves it. That is the great honour.”

Mourinho added that the best player in the world was not necessarily at Paris Saint-Germain or from Spain, despite the achievements of Luis Enrique and De la Fuente.

“The other thing is deciding who the best player in the world is, and that player is not necessarily from Paris Saint-Germain or Spain,” he said. “There are three or four players. We know who they are and where they are. We know who made history individually this summer.

“The Ballon d’Or has a political side and, when politics enters into it, I do not like it very much. You already know my opinion of the award. We are not going to invent its meaning in Spain or at Paris Saint-Germain. There is either Luis Enrique or De la Fuente, while the best player is somebody else.”

Mourinho also discussed how he plans to manage his squad against Malaga CF, saying Marc Cucurella would start at left-back after Alvaro Carreras had played in the first two matches.

“Every player in the squad had a different experience during pre-season,” he said. “We have a strong team with solutions to deal with that. For example, Cucurella will start tomorrow and Carreras, who played in the previous two matches, will be on the bench. If Cucurella becomes tired, Carreras will come on. That is the kind of solution a coach likes.”

Ousmane Diomande, who joined recently after a difficult summer, is also being gradually introduced.

“I will not speak too much about individual players, but Diomande arrived recently and had a difficult summer,” Mourinho said. “He did not train with RB Leipzig. He is improving step by step and has already had some minutes. Tomorrow he may start or come on as a substitute, but he is being prepared gradually.”

On the relationship between Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappe, Mourinho said their progress depended on the entire team, although the players’ quality and understanding were crucial.

“This is a collective team effort, but the key is quality,” he said. “The second point, which is secondary but still important, is the understanding between them. There is affection, friendship and cooperation.

“When you combine personal understanding with exceptional quality, you have everything you need to keep improving. It is not two plus nine, but 11 players. That dynamic will give all of them the motivation to continue developing.”

Mourinho said the focus he wanted from his players was not simply about staying together at the club’s training base before a match.

“There are two types of focus,” he said. “The type you are talking about is being together and sleeping in a hotel at the training ground. The type that matters to me is what is in my head, and that has nothing to do with the hotel.

“Sometimes I feel sad because all you see is warm-ups and passing drills in a circle. In my other work there is a great deal of focus. We will not all sleep here tonight. We have a team meeting, we will eat together and stay a little longer, then meet again in the morning. Espy, Cucurella and I will sleep here; the others will return home.”

Jude Bellingham was also praised for his importance to the side.

“Bellingham is a unique and extremely important player for the team,” Mourinho said. “He has many different qualities – physical, mental and tactical – as well as the ability to recover, score goals and excel in the air. He is a magical player.

“I enjoy talking about Mbappe and Vinicius Junior and I understand those questions, but I am happy with all my players.”

Mourinho said every player in the Castilla squad had impressed him, highlighting Thiago Pitarch’s progress.

“There is no player in Castilla I do not like,” he said. “Thiago Pitarch has shown that he is no longer suited to playing for the reserve side. I like him very much and he is part of this group.

“When he is ready, he will be part of the group and will get playing time. I tell him that the muscles in his legs are like the muscles in mine and that he needs to put on a few kilograms through hard work.”

The international break remains a concern for Mourinho, particularly for players who are selected but do not play for their countries.

“The international period worries me because it is a long one,” he said. “I am less concerned about players who join their national teams and play matches, and more concerned about those who are called up but do not play.

“We have to trust the professionalism of the coaches and their respect for the players and clubs. Injuries sometimes happen during the break, and when players return to their clubs they lose the balance in the work they have been doing for weeks. Then the injury occurs.”

Mourinho also said it would be preferable for Malaga CF to learn Real Madrid’s starting line-up shortly before kick-off rather than on the previous day.

“If we play tomorrow and the opposition do not know our line-up until an hour and a half before the match, that is better,” he said. “But if it is revealed today, it is not a major problem.

“What worries me is when there are major structural changes. We have played with three defenders at the back, with Espy and Kylian together. If we do something outside the expectations Malaga’s coach might have, then yes, that could be a concern.

“But the difference between Carreras and Cucurella is not significant. The positive thing about Carreras not starting is that nobody has spoken about it.”