PSG will focus its Ballon d'Or campaign on Ousmane Dembélé and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, per Le Parisien. That is bad news for Kylian Mbappé, Lamine Yamal, and Harry Kane.
PSG has decided on a campaign it will implement ahead of the upcoming Ballon d’Or ceremony. This is evidently bad news for the main candidates outside the Parisian club, such as Kylian Mbappé, Lamine Yamal, or Harry Kane.
PSG has a pleasant problem: several players are considered candidates for the next Ballon d’Or, with 10 of their players among the 30 nominees in the men’s best player category. In any case, the Parisians know only one player will receive the award, and from Paris, it seems they have already decided to concentrate their votes on certain players.
Last week, Fabián Ruiz, Ousmane Dembélé and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia gave an interview to The Athletic that was quite easy to interpret. Speaking together in the pages of one of the biggest Anglo-Saxon media outlets, the three Parisian players collectively assumed their Ballon d’Or candidacies. A strong message, but with one limitation: it is impossible to reward all three players.
Therefore, according to reports from Le Parisien, the French capital club has decided to dedicate the rest of its campaign to supporting Dembélé and Kvaratskhelia. Fabián Ruiz, who was injured from January to May, surely knew that he was at a disadvantage compared to his teammates or his competitors at other clubs.
And the fact is that, although he is the only player who managed to achieve the World Cup and Champions League double last season, he is perhaps one of the players with the biggest disadvantages in terms of how people perceive the quality of his football or the impact he has on his teams, generally giving preference to forwards.
In terms of honors, nobody disputes that the Parisian No. 8 is a favorite, but by sporting standards, it's hard to consider him the best player in the world after being injured for six months.
Therefore, PSG seems to favor betting on Kvaratskhelia and Dembélé, who, according to the club, have strong arguments for being named the best players in the world.
As for the Georgian, he was named best player of the last Champions League campaign, receiving that trophy on Sept. 9 at the Parc des Princes. That said, Kvaratskhelia has a clear disadvantage compared to the competition: he didn't play in the World Cup, unlike Dembélé, who remains vital to PSG and is a World Cup semifinalist with France.
It is difficult to choose a favorite between these two, especially when you consider other competitors like the aforementioned Kane, Mbappé, and Yamal.
Represented by the same agency, the two Parisian friends are therefore at the heart of a campaign still far from its conclusion. Last year, PSG clearly bet on campaigning around Dembélé, but the dilemma was much less complicated than it is this year.
