Why has Mbappé never won the Ballon d’Or, the most prestigious award in soccer?

Kylian Mbappé has consistently used the FIFA World Cup to remind us that he is one of the best players on the planet.

In his first tournament as a 19-year-old, he won the competition with France, scoring four goals along the way, including one in the final.

Four years later, he found the net eight times, recording a hat trick in the final as Les Bleus finished runners-up.

This year, the Real Madrid star is on track to surpass that tally after scoring seven goals through the round of 16.

Only Lionel Messi has ever scored more World Cup goals than Mbappé, who, at just 27, should still have another couple of tournaments ahead of him.

Despite his remarkable exploits since bursting onto the scene with Monaco at the end of 2015, Mbappé has never won the Ballon d’Or, or even come especially close.

The France captain has been nominated eight times between 2017 and 2025 and has finished in the top 10 on every occasion. But he has only twice made the top five: in 2018, when he came fourth, and in 2023, when he finished third.

Why Mbappé has fallen short

Mbappé’s emergence as a Ballon d’Or contender came just as Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo’s long-standing dominance of the award came to an end. Either the Argentine or the Portuguese star won every edition between 2008 and 2017, yet Mbappé has been unable to get his name etched onto the trophy in the years since.

Perhaps the biggest reasons for his lack of individual recognition have been his inability to win the Champions League, either with Paris Saint-Germain or Real Madrid, and the fact that he spent the first nine seasons of his senior career playing in France’s Ligue 1, which is widely regarded as Europe’s fifth strongest league.

Messi did win his seventh Ballon d’Or as a Paris Saint-Germain player in 2021, although that was largely thanks to captaining Argentina to victory in that year’s Copa América, their first major international trophy in 28 years.

Unfortunately for Mbappé, team accomplishments appear to have become increasingly important in determining the Ballon d’Or winner. Since joining Real Madrid in 2024, he has yet to win a major trophy, with his only team honors coming in the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Intercontinental Cup.

World Cup success the key for Mbappé

Mbappé’s first near miss came in 2018, when he finished fourth after winning the World Cup with France. But he was still a teenager and arguably still establishing himself as one of the game’s elite players. That year, Luka Modric was rewarded for helping Real Madrid win the Champions League and leading Croatia on its surprise run to the World Cup final.

The forward finished one place higher in 2023, the year after he won the Golden Boot in Qatar. However, there was only ever going to be one winner after Messi inspired Argentina to its first World Cup in 36 years.

If Mbappé is finally to get his hands on a first Ballon d’Or, France winning the 2026 World Cup feels almost essential, especially with Real Madrid enduring a trophyless 2025-26 season.

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