According to Christophe Dugarry, Didier Deschamps, the manager of France, is “afraid of hurting” Kylian Mbappe and doesn’t really care whether the PSG star wins the 2023 Ballon d’Or or not.

According to Christophe Dugarry, Didier Deschamps, the manager of France, is “afraid of offending” Kylian Mbappe and doesn’t care if he wins the Ballon d’Or.

The winner of the 2023 Ballon d’Or will be announced in Paris on October 30, 2023, and Mbappe is a contender. Despite Lionel Messi and Erling Haaland being the favorites after their respective standout 2022–23 seasons, Deschamps has stated that the Paris Saint–Germain attacker is deserving of the prize. The French World Cup champion Dugarry, who believes Mbappe won’t take the top slot, has said that Deschamps shares his opinion but won’t express it out of concern for “offending” his star player.

“It makes me laugh. You feel like it’s the ball of hypocrites. Journalists ask the question and you don’t know if they really mean it,” he told RMC Sport. “We ask Deschamps the question but I’m sure he doesn’t give a damn. He (Mbappé) is not scoring at the moment, he is not playing very well, but (Deschamps) is afraid of offending him so he is obliged to make a response. Don’t make a connection with me and don’t ‘fry’ me with Deschamps. I’m talking about all those who give their opinion, friends of friends, those who have an interest. There’s no real honesty in any of this. The Ballon d’Or, we don’t care, it doesn’t interest anyone.”

Dugarry also expressed his belief that Haaland and Messi would both be deserving winners of the Ballon d’Or ahead of Mbappe. Messi inspired Argentina to the 2022 World Cup and Haaland won the treble in his first season at Manchester City, while Mbappe could only land the Ligue 1 title at PSG as they failed to make an impact in the Champions League once again.

“Today, to put my foot down, I would not give it to Mbappe, as strong as he is,” he added. “I would give it to someone who has won titles, it would be either Messi, but rather to Haaland.”

• PSG teammate Achraf Hakimi believes Kylian Mbappe ‘deserves’ to win the Ballon d’Or in 2023 over Lionel Messi and Erling Haaland.

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WHAT NEXT FOR MBAPPE? The striker is due to return to action on Friday when France take on Netherlands in Euro 2024 qualifying.