Real Madrid star awarded Onze d’Or days before Ballon d’Or ceremony

Real Madrid star awarded Onze d’Or days before Ballon d’Or ceremony Kylian Mbappe is one of the frontrunners for the Ballon d’Or after enjoying a spectacular time with club and country over the past year. The Frenchman was the top scorer in La Liga, the UEFA Champions League and the FIFA World Cup, and would have been the overwhelming favourite to take home the award if he had at least one title to his name. Mbappe, however, fell short in terms of trophies with both Real Madrid and France, and thus now faces stiff competition for the prestigious individual award. An early sign Just a week before the announcement of the Ballon d’Or winner, Kylian Mbappe was named the winner of the Onze d’Or. That comes as a massively positive prognostic sign for the player. The Onze d’Or is awarded by the readers of the Onze Mondial to celebrate the best player in the world from the previous season, and Mbappe winning it gives a good idea of the pulse of the public. Over the years, the winner of the Onze d’Or has usually also won the Ballon d’Or, and Mbappe has strong reasons to be optimistic after the latest development. After all, the voting scheme is partially similar and even just last season, Ousmane Dembele won both the accolades. Stiff competition Mbappe’s biggest competitor. (Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images) The voting for the Ballon d’Or closed a while ago, and the winner of the award is already decided. Yet, there have surprisingly been few to no leaks. Mbappe is indeed a frontrunner given his numbers and phenomenal season on an individual level. He does, however, face stiff competition from a number of names. Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal, at this point, is Mbappe’s biggest competitor for the award having won the UEFA Champions League, La Liga and the Spanish Super Cup with an influential part to play. Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane is another leading candidate, having won domestic titles and scored good numbers for the club. He too, however, did not win the World Cup nor did he have great numbers af the event. The fourth top candidate is PSG’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia who dominated the UCL for the French side and guided them to glory. In his case, however, he did not even participate in the FIFA World Cup.