Speaking in association with OLBG, Desailly told GOAL when asked for his assessment of an iconic countryman: “Mbappe. Wow, he made the move that eventually allowed him to be that Ballon d'Or that he himself is looking for. And he had great years in Paris Saint-Germain. Unfortunately, it was a Paris Saint-Germain with all these stars allying and they've not been able really to score. But Mbappe, when he was 24/25 in Paris, was just amazing.
“I feel that he was, the agility, the speed and all what he was showing back in the days was much more accurate than what he's showing now. Even though this year he has performed, I don't know his statistics, but he has scored more than 40 goals, he left Paris with 40-odd goals and he came back in Madrid and did the same thing, he scored similar stats.
“So it's just unfortunate that Madrid has dropped. The cycle of Madrid has dropped a little bit. It's not the end of a cycle. It's dropped in the cycle with a new coach, a new philosophy now, because [Carlo] Ancelotti, he didn't find a way to make the team to be sparkling again, you know. You could see that tactically something was missing in the squad. They were still winning by luck.
“Because the gods of football love Madrid they've been able to find some good opportunities to win some games, but it's not enough. It's not enough for the Champions League and for their Spanish league. But now they are back into kind of stability, but you are not sure because lots of injured players…
“So I believe that he's that key player. The problem he has is the association. The association with the other players. You see? So the association with Vinicius is not that great. They have these new players in the midfield. Xabi [Alonso] is giving him the opportunity to become that important offensive player. So I don't know, it depends on the others also to have that extra. The statistics are magnificent, but he's missing something that will push him to become a Ballon d'Or.”
