Will Football Finally Reward Kylian Mbappé One Day?
There are seasons that announce greatness, and then there are years that demand recognition. Kylian Mbappé’s 2025 has firmly entered the latter category.
In an era dominated by generational icons, Mbappé has joined the most exclusive of clubs. He is now only the fourth player in the 21st century to score over 63 goals in a calendar year, standing shoulder to shoulder with Robert Lewandowski, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Lionel Messi. It is rare air; the kind reserved for footballers whose names define eras rather than seasons.
What makes Mbappé’s achievement even more compelling is the context. With one game remaining, the French superstar is just one goal away from equaling and potentially surpassing Cristiano Ronaldo’s 59-goal calendar-year record for Real Madrid. In only his second season in Spain, Mbappé is already threatening benchmarks set by a club legend whose standards once felt untouchable.
His numbers this season underline that dominance. In 27 games across the 2025/26 campaign, Mbappé has already registered 40 goal contributions, scoring 33 goals and providing seven assists. Beyond the statistics, he has been decisive, relentless, and often unplayable—the focal point of Real Madrid’s attack and the most feared forward in Spanish football.
Yet, amid this historic run, controversy lingers. Mbappé’s omission from the recently released FIFA XI raised eyebrows across the football world. For a player delivering such output, carrying expectation at the biggest club on the planet, and redefining consistency at the elite level, the snub feels jarring.
It naturally leads to a wider question: would football be unfair to Kylian Mbappé if the biggest individual awards continue to elude him?
The Ballon d’Or and FIFA Best have long been shaped by moments; trophies, narratives, timing. Mbappé has often been caught between eras: arriving as Messi and Ronaldo were still casting long shadows, and peaking in a period where team success sometimes outweighs individual brilliance. But with his current trajectory, those excuses are wearing thin.
Mbappé is no longer just a prodigy or a future winner-in-waiting. He is the present, the most prolific scorer in Spanish football, and arguably the game’s most complete forward.
If football’s individual accolades are meant to reward excellence, impact, and historic achievement, then Mbappé’s case is becoming impossible to ignore.
Perhaps recognition has only been delayed, not denied. If this road continues, it may no longer be a question of if Mbappé will lift the Ballon d’Or or FIFA Best but when.