{"id":82186,"date":"2026-09-07T18:05:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T18:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/82186\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T18:05:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T18:05:13","slug":"france-and-real-madrid-star-mbappe-eyeing-ballon-dor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/82186\/","title":{"rendered":"France and Real Madrid star Mbapp\u00e9 eyeing Ballon d\u2019Or"},"content":{"rendered":"

MADRID (AP) \u2014 Kylian Mbapp\u00e9<\/a> believes this could be the year he wins the Ballon d\u2019Or<\/a> for the first time.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s optimistic after winning his second consecutive World Cup Golden Boot with 10 goals, the most in 56 years. He also overtook Lionel Messi for the most all-time World Cup goals with 22. There were also 42 goals in 44 matches for Real Madrid, although the club finished last season without a major trophy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many people who speak about me and the Ballon d\u2019Or. Of course I\u2019ve made history in the most important competition. Maybe it\u2019s a good year for this, but people can vote according to what they think,\u201d Mbapp\u00e9 said on Monday.<\/p>\n

The award will be presented on Oct. 26 in London<\/a>. The men\u2019s Ballon d\u2019Or last year was won by Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 after Paris Saint-Germain won its first Champions League title.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think when you play for Real Madrid, the best club in the world, people automatically associate you with this award,\u201d Mbapp\u00e9 added. \u201cI always think I\u2019m the best, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other strong candidates include Harry Kane \u2014 61 goals in 51 games for Bayern Munich \u2014 and Lamine Yamal, who won the World Cup with Spain and La Liga with Barcelona.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like making comparisons because I do a lot of things that others don\u2019t,\u201d Mbapp\u00e9 said. \u201cIf we get into that it becomes an endless debate, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

His best finish in the voting was third in 2023. He spoke ahead of Real Madrid\u2019s Champions League opener against Inter Milan in Madrid on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See AP\u2019s full soccer coverage here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MADRID (AP) \u2014 Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 believes this could be the year he wins the Ballon d\u2019Or for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1686,1807,332,82,3103,4611,83,1743,396],"class_list":["post-82186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-madrid","tag-harry-kane","tag-inter-milan","tag-lionel-messi","tag-madrid","tag-ousmane-dembele","tag-paris-saint-germain-fc","tag-real-madrid","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}