Kylian Mbappe welcomes Ballon d’Or talk after record World Cup

Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappe says it is natural for him to be considered a contender for this year’s Ballon d’Or after his record-breaking World Cup campaign.

The France captain scored 10 goals at the tournament this summer to win the Golden Boot, although his side finished fourth. His career total of 22 World Cup goals also made him the competition’s all-time leading scorer.

Mbappe, 27, has never won the award given to the world’s best player. Speaking at a news conference at the Ciudad Real Madrid training ground on Monday, he accepted that his performances and his status at Real Madrid had made him a prominent candidate.

“I think that when you play for Real Madrid, which is the best club in the world, naturally people associate you with that kind of award, they associate you with collective awards, individual awards,” Mbappe told reporters.

“A lot of people, when they see me in the street, talk to me about the Ballon d’Or, a lot of people talk about me as a possible Ballon d’Or winner…

“Of course I made a lot of history this summer in the most important competition in sport, but we’ll see.

“I have the feeling that it’s a good year for that, but there’s still a long time to go and people are free to vote for whoever they think is the best player in the world.”

Mbappe has scored heavily since joining Real Madrid in 2024, but the Spanish club has not won a major trophy during his first two seasons.

Real Madrid, 15-time European champions, host Inter Milan on Tuesday in their opening match of the UEFA Champions League league phase.

The team has often appeared unbalanced during Mbappe’s time in Madrid, with a collection of high-profile forwards – including Mbappe and Brazil winger Vinicius Junior – criticised for not contributing enough to the collective effort.

That has been contrasted with the influence of Ousmane Dembele at Paris Saint-Germain and Raphinha at Barcelona.

Mbappe acknowledged that Real Madrid still need to improve, while rejecting direct comparisons with his fellow attackers.

“We have to improve,” admitted Mbappe. “But I could play dumb and tell you that I score more goals than (Dembele and Raphinha), and that they need to score more goals to be like me.

“Everyone is different, but I want to do things intelligently and say that of course I have to improve and all that, but I don’t like comparisons because I think I do a lot of things that others don’t do.”

Jose Mourinho has recently suggested he would rather see Mbappe score fewer goals if it helped Real Madrid win more titles.

The France captain said he would accept a lower personal total if it brought silverware, but argued that individual success and team honours should not be viewed as alternatives.

“I’d take 30 goals with titles, yes, but… for me it’s an absurd debate,” said Mbappe.

“I always want to score goals and win titles… you don’t have to choose, you can do both things.”

Mourinho led Inter Milan to Champions League glory at the Santiago Bernabeu in 2010, before leaving the Italian club to take charge of Real Madrid. He also guided Inter to a treble that season.

Ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, however, he said that history should have no influence once the game begins.

“There aren’t many (people) left from my time, but it’ll always be a pleasure to see people, even if I don’t know them, but people who defend Inter, before and after,” said Mourinho.

“During the game I want to win, they want to win, and there won’t be time to think about things from a wonderful past.”

Mourinho is also looking for a response after Real Madrid suffered their first defeat of the season, losing 1-0 to Real Betis in La Liga on Friday.

“I want to win. I could tell you I want to play well, but I don’t want to play well like we did against Betis and lose,” said Mourinho.

“Obviously we’re in a phase where we play eight games and the objective in these eight games is to qualify, and I think we’re going to do that. But I want to think about this match in isolation from that context.

“I want to think about this match as a one-off game. I don’t want to think that we still have seven more matches to play, and I want to win.”