Daniel Riolo denounces Kylian Mbappé’s campaign in France

Kylian Mbappé’s campaign for the award is prompting backlash in France. Daniel Riolo, the French sports journalist, has taken aim at the Real Madrid player’s repeated media strategy ahead of the award on 26 October, using a particularly harsh image: “It looks like a stolen car.”

On RMC’s After Foot programme, Riolo believes the forward is overstating his merits in an attempt to convince voters for the award intended to recognise the world’s best player from last season. The question was also put directly on RMC Sport: is Mbappé’s media campaign bordering on the ridiculous?

Mbappé has made his ambitions clear himself: “It would be a disappointment not to win the award; nobody was better than me last season.” He defended the importance of individual performances, stressing that voters do not select a team but a player. The forward also noted that he was the top scorer in La Liga with 25 goals and in the Champions League with 15, while saying he has good feelings about this year.

Riolo believes the growing number of interviews is putting Mbappé in an “uncomfortable” position and that “there is huge exaggeration around Kylian and what he does, or does not, bring to the team”. He says he understands the ultimate objective without accepting the methods used: “I am not going to say it would be a devalued award, but the way this success is being built — if it exists — leaves a bitter taste.”

Jerome Rothen, the former French player and host of Rothen S’enflamme on RMC Sport, adopted an even harsher tone. He accused Mbappé of trying to “buy votes for that fucking award” and warned: “If Mbappé wins the award, it is a joke, and he will end up very alone.” Rothen said he intended to choose his words carefully, while insisting that nobody would silence him.

In his view, a genuine campaign is being conducted by Mbappé and his entourage to make his victory seem essential. He maintained that this assessment is shared beyond former players alone, and repeated that a triumph for the forward would look like “a sham” to him.

Riolo was especially critical after comments Mbappé gave to RFI, following a previous season that ended without a trophy for Real Madrid and the France national team. That interview came two days before the derby against Atlético, which Real Madrid lost. For Riolo, “there is a huge strategy behind” that communication, and the award has become “his current obsession”.

The journalist also feels that the interview appears to be almost the one that most structures the campaign, an assessment he presents as an impression rather than a certainty.