'Chase back a little!' - Kylian Mbappe told he 'cannot compare' to Zinedine Zidane & Real Madrid forward must do more to reach 'icon' status in France

Mbappe captured a global crown in 2018 while still in his teens. He reached a second successive final at Qatar 2022 - making history when netting a hat-trick in that showpiece event - but suffered penalty shootout heartache against Lionel Messi and Argentina.

The now 27-year-old frontman has gone on to become the greatest marksman that Paris Saint-Germain have ever seen, with the target being found on 235 occasions for them, while closing to within two efforts of Olivier Giroud (57) at the top of France’s goal chart.

Mbappe will be back in the hunt for more major honours in 2026, with club and country, and has been maintaining remarkable individual standards since becoming another ‘Galactico’ at Santiago Bernabeu in 2024.

Quizzed on whether he could one be recognised as the greatest player that France has ever seen, 1998 World Cup winner Leboeuf - speaking in association with BetVictor Online Casino - told GOAL: “Definitely not. He cannot compare. It is difficult to compare careers and times as well. But what Zizou is capable of doing, on top of being a great player, the way he behaved - even if he had the 2006 mistakes - people love him. Kylian Mbappe had some controversies in his private life, which brought some anger from some people in France. He will never catch where Zidane is, and probably nobody is going to catch him. Michel Platini as well at the time and Raymond Kopa before him, those players are icons. It’s only at the end of his career that we will see if Mbappe can be put at the same level.

“He’s a great player. Definitely a great player and a smart guy. I’m very proud of him. But he has to work harder on the field still to make me think ‘wow, what a player’. He is a great finisher. Real Madrid are very lucky to have him this season, to score goals in almost every game. But I still need, from him, a little bit more - when you lose the ball, for example, to chase back a little bit, just a bit and showing that he wants to help his team-mates. In modern times it is all about statistics, how many goals you score, how many passes you made, how many runs you make, and for me Kylian Mbappe is the best example of what modern-day football is right now. I don’t belong to that, so I want to see more of him.”

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Mbappe will need to raise his game even further in order to land an elusive Ballon d’Or, with a third-place finish in 2023 the best that he has managed in that vote. All-time greats Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are no longer competing for that prize, but others have risen above Mbappe.

Pressed on whether he is destined to always miss out on Golden Ball recognition, Leboeuf added: “I don’t like the Ballon d’Or, because for me it doesn’t mean anything. It’s not the best player. The Ballon d’Or is supposedly for the best player in the world. If he wins that, does that make Mbappe the best centre-back in the world? I can tell you Mbappe is really bad at centre-back! It should be called MVP, most valuable player. It is better to have Mbappe than any centre-back in the world, even if it is [William] Saliba - one of the best in the world - because those people bring people to the TV and the stadium. But the best player doesn’t mean anything. It’s a business.

“I really want Mbappe to win the Ballon d’Or because he is an incredible player. But, nowadays, the main players are those that are winning - like Rodri, like before when you could see [Sergio] Busquets, you could see [Toni] Kroos, those players who create the game and work in every position, defensive and offensive, those players that are complete. Without players like that, without N’Golo Kante and Declan Rice, Claude Makelele and Casemiro - he was the best player at Real Madrid, he was doing the dirty job and creating as well - those players are crucial for big teams. It’s insane when we say that - Vitinha and [Joao] Neves at Paris Saint-Germain, [Jordan] Henderson at Liverpool, [Alexis] Mac Allister last season with [Ryan] Gravenberch - those players are more important than any striker that can score 40 goals. It’s going to be hard for Kylian Mbappe and for Erling Haaland. They have to really go for it because next season or the season after, it is going to be done.”

Mbappe and Haaland - who are both posting prolific numbers on the goal front at Real Madrid and Manchester City respectively this season - will hope to have more than two more shots at Ballon d’Or glory left in them. They are, however, aware of the need to help deliver collective success, rather than individual accolades, in order to be recognised as the best player on the planet.