I want to break down why Kylian Mbappé should not win the Ballon d'Or based on the three official evaluation criteria. When you look closely at his actual season, the narrative doesn't match the reality. Individual Performances (Decisive actions, class, and individual brilliance) • La Liga & The Pichichi: Yes, he won the Pichichi, but most of his goals came before January. Furthermore, if you take away penalties, he actually had fewer non-penalty goals than Vedat Muriqi—who plays for a much weaker side. This is why he wasn't even nominated for La Liga Player of the Season; that rightfully went to Lamine Yamal. • The Champions League: He finished as the UCL top scorer with 15 goals, but a staggering 13 of those goals came during the group stage against weaker opponents (2 vs. Marseille, 3 vs. Kairat, 4 vs. Olympiacos, 2 vs. Monaco, and 2 vs. Benfica). He completely disappeared against big teams in the knockout rounds, which is why he missed out on the UCL Best Player nomination. • The World Cup: He had a statistically good tournament, but he was far from the best player. Rodri was clearly the standout player of the tournament. Honestly, even a 39-year-old Messi had a more impactful World Cup campaign than Mbappé. Team Performances and Achievements (Major collective trophies) • Real Madrid completely failed to win any major silverware last season. • To make matters worse, Mbappé couldn't even step up to win the third-place "losers' final" with his national team. Class and Fair Play (Player behavior on and off the pitch) • I don't want to drag this out, but his behavior does not scream "class." He acted like a massive sore loser after losing to Barcelona. He went as far as refusing to let himself or his teammates give Barcelona a guard of honor. Conclusion: In past seasons, Mbappé has always been hyper-focused on raw goal statistics, but he rarely satisfies all three criteria simultaneously to truly deserve the Ballon d'Or. Yet, he constantly claims he is the best player in the world, and I honestly don't understand where that ego comes from. In my opinion, players like Harry Kane or Lamine Yamal deserve the award significantly more than him this year. What do you guys think?   submitted by   /u/ANANDHU07 [link]   [comments]