Kylian Mbappé recorded the best finish of his Ballon d’Or career, placing second behind Harry Kane, but left the ceremony with mixed feelings. The Frenchman traveled to London believing he had a genuine chance to win soccer’s most prestigious individual award, and the race remained in doubt until the very end.

“It was a very close vote, tighter than when Rodri beat Vinicius,” Vincent Garcia, editor-in-chief of France Football, told L’Équipe. Rodri beat the Brazilian by just 41 points to claim his first Ballon d’Or, leaving France captain Mbappé agonizingly close to being crowned the world’s best player.

Neither his record 10 consecutive Ballon d’Or nominations, the most by a French player, nor his best-ever finish was enough to satisfy Mbappé’s ambitions. When he burst onto the scene as a teenager at Monaco at just 16, many in France assumed he would eventually succeed Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as the game’s dominant figure. Yet at 27, with his 28th birthday coming in December, the Real Madrid forward is still waiting to win the Ballon d’Or.

A decade chasing the Ballon d’Or

Before this year, Mbappé’s best finish had been third in 2023, behind Erling Haaland. Many expected the two to battle for supremacy in world soccer over the next decade. But the emergence of Lamine Yamal, his friend Ousmane Dembélé’s success with PSG and Harry Kane’s determination to win the award have all complicated Mbappé’s pursuit.

When he was first nominated for the Ballon d’Or in 2017, Mbappé made no secret of his ambition to win the award presented by France Football.

“It’s a personal dream because it’s the ultimate individual honor for any soccer player who starts out kicking a ball. (...) I remember Kaká’s Ballon d’Or in 2007. I was young, just 9 years old, but it left a lasting impression on me. In recent years, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have dominated soccer so completely that, for me, the Ballon d’Or is inevitably associated with them. Of course, I’d like to follow in their footsteps. They’ve set such an extraordinary, almost unimaginable standard that it will be very difficult,” he said at the time.

Nearly a decade later, Mbappé is still waiting to experience the feeling of being named the world’s best player. Going two consecutive seasons without major trophies has played a significant role in the voting.

Despite finishing as the leading scorer at the World Cup, surpassing Messi’s record, as well as in LaLiga and the Champions League, Mbappé’s lack of major trophies appears to have counted against him. He ultimately finished behind Kane.

Mbappé arrived in London confident that this could finally be his year, with the outcome uncertain until the very end. But the Bayern Munich forward ultimately beat him to the award.

Mbappé’s individual achievements remain remarkable, however. He became the first French player to receive Ballon d’Or nominations in 10 consecutive editions. And at 22, he matched Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as the youngest players to finish in the top 10 four times.

He has never come closer to winning the award than he did in 2026. Mbappé embraced Kane before the Englishman took the stage to deliver his emotional acceptance speech, then returned to Madrid empty-handed, with both pride in his achievement and disappointment at missing out.

PSG conspicuously absent from the ceremony

Ousmane Dembélé, the reigning Ballon d’Or winner, was the only Paris Saint-Germain player to attend the ceremony in London.

The European champions were playing a rescheduled Ligue 1 game against Olympique Lyonnais at the same time Monday. Despite having a record 10 players among the 30 finalists, PSG had no senior club executives in attendance in London.

“PSG could have done more to campaign for one of their players, as Mbappé did,” Garcia said after the ceremony.

PSG was named the world’s best team for the second consecutive year, with Dembélé taking the stage to accept the award. The 2025 Ballon d’Or winner finished seventh in this year’s voting and sat alongside Mbappé and Michael Olise as they watched the ceremony’s conclusion.

Nasser Al-Khelaifi, whose absence became known just hours before the ceremony, and Luis Campos, PSG’s sporting director, opted instead to head to the Parc des Princes to watch the game against Lyon in person.

“Have we been named the best team in the world? Congratulations to all the fans,” Luis Enrique said after PSG’s 2-0 win over Lyon.

The Spanish coach did not win the award for the world’s best coach, which went to his compatriot Luis de la Fuente. The Spain coach was a deserving winner after leading his national team to the World Cup title. Luis Enrique had said days earlier that he had little interest in the awards and had backed a PSG player to win the Ballon d’Or.

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