The Real Madrid forward beats João Neves and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia a week before the Ballon d'Or ceremony in London.
Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappé has won the Onze d'Or, the award that readers of French magazine Onze Mondial give to the best footballer of the season. He took 48.2% of the vote. Paris Saint-Germain midfielder João Neves came second with 11.9%, PSG winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was third on 10.8%, and Barcelona's Lamine Yamal took 9.7%.
Onze Mondial pointed to a campaign with more than 40 goals and a historic 2026 World Cup. At that tournament Mbappé scored 10 goals to claim the Golden Boot, and he became the tournament's all-time leading scorer. The vote is open to fans worldwide, beIN Sports reports.
Onze Mondial announced the result on X.
Speaking after receiving the award, Mbappé said: "I'm happy to receive this recognition. It is a reward for the work I have put in throughout the year. It gives me a lot of motivation to improve and keep moving forward."
He succeeds fellow Frenchman Ousmane Dembélé, who won the Onze d'Or in 2025 along with the top individual honors handed out by France Football and UEFA.
AS notes that the Onze d'Or has historically often aligned with the eventual Ballon d'Or winner. Legit.ng adds that neither Real Madrid nor France won a major title during the season, and some voters are expected to weigh that against his individual output.
In an interview with Marca after the award, Mbappé began by dismantling the myth of the perfect boy. "Anyone who thinks I'm perfect clearly doesn't have a television!" he joked. "I've shown time and again that I can do stupid things. And I'm okay with that. I think that's fine too."
He defended his claim to be the best in the world as a motivation. "When I say it, it's because I think it and because it is a motivation." He also tied doubt to a long career. "You don't become a player with such a lasting presence over time if you don't think, if you don't reflect, if you don't doubt," he said.
Looking back more than a decade after his debut, Mbappé said what matters most to him:
"The main thing I take away is not the goals or the titles, but that in these ten or eleven years I haven't been bored for a single year."
He wants to understand the game on a deeper level. "I want to truly understand the moments of a match, of a season, of a play," he explained.
On the pressure of millions of people, he said: "Today I'm 27 years old, I have distance, and I understand that sometimes there are people who aren't looking to analyze and that's just how it is."
The Ballon d'Or ceremony is in London on October 26, a week after this result.
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