What Mbappé said about Leo Messi and his seventh Ballon d'Or award

Yesterday, the final list of candidates for a Ballon d'Or for which Messi will not be eligible for the first time in 17 years was announced. Only Mbappé appears as a representative of PSG, ambitious to start being a protagonist of this gala in which the best footballer on the planet is recognized. In an interview with France Football, the one that grants the award, the Frenchman explains what this landmark date means to him.

"It's a big lie that the footballer is not interested in the Ballon d'Or. It's hypocritical to say that. We all think about it. We talk about team, and collective, because somehow it serves to camouflage our ambition, but it is honest to recognize that it matters to us. For the last two years I have been a more realistic candidate for the award. Before, I was satisfied with being in the top ten. Now, on the other hand, I'm among the four or five most regulars."

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Mbappé spoke about conversations in the dressing room: "We don't talk about the Ballon d'Or in January, but we make comments when the lists appear. Then, as the ceremony approaches, it's obviously a topic of conversation in the group. We place our bets, we debate our opinions. We also have the right. Not all players participate in these discussions anyway."

He also mentioned the media duel between Messi and Ronaldo: "For a whole generation it was the eternal war between the two. For a decade they shared the Ballon d'Or. At each ceremony it was fun to guess, by their faces, who was going to take it home. Digging a little in my memory I also have a distant memory of the one won by Ronaldinho, but nothing comparable to the period between Leo and Cristiano."

Mbappé spoke about Messi's reaction before his last Ballon d’Or win

"The morning of the last gala he was nervous because a few hours later he was going to pick up his seventh Ballon d'Or. Maybe he was thinking about what he was going to say, how he was going to lift the trophy. I told him: it's not possible to be nervous after having been there on six other occasions. I would have gone with a cigar in my mouth! But that shows that he still has the soul of a child and that he is still excited about being the best. He's not tired.