What started as an interview about the Ballon d’Or has turned into one of the more talked-about subplots of the French national team this season.
It began with comments Kylian Mbappé gave to L’Équipe, addressing the fact that his France and former PSG teammate Ousmane Dembélé had won the Ballon d’Or before he had.
“He has always been seen as a talented player,” Mbappé said.
“Me, I’ve always been seen as the chosen one. I was right at the top from the start, very early on. He had a different journey, the injuries, but he made a great comeback!”
Read in full, the comments include real praise for Dembélé’s resilience, but the repeated phrase “the chosen one” was the part that stuck.
Days later, after PSG’s 1-0 win over Brest, in which he assisted Ferran Torres’s winning goal, Dembélé addressed it directly in a pitchside interview with Ligue 1 Plus (L1+).
The exchange didn’t end there.
Shortly after, Dembélé posted an Instagram story featuring the song “Galactic” by French rapper Maes, with the lyrics: “If I’ve got you in my crosshairs, I pull the trigger three times… we’re gonna talk about you in the past imperfect.”
He didn’t caption it or name anyone directly, but given the timing, right in the middle of the back-and-forth, plenty of fans read it as a not-so-subtle continuation of the exchange rather than a random song choice.
Fan reaction has leaned heavily in Dembélé’s favor.
One post responding to the Instagram story argued this wasn’t an isolated incident, claiming, “After Griezmann and Kanté, now it’s Dembélé. Mbappé talks about the others as if he’s above everyone, even though he has the same trophy cabinet as a Lautaro Martínez,” and going on to suggest Mbappé secretly envies Dembélé’s career path.
It’s worth noting that these are fans’ strongly held opinion rather than a confirmed pattern, but it reflects how quickly the narrative around Mbappé has shifted among a section of supporters.
What makes the whole situation more complicated is that the two have shown real signs of friendship elsewhere.
Earlier in the year, Dembélé publicly said he hoped to see Mbappé win the Ballon d’Or one day, calling him “a friend of mine” and saying he deserved it for his career.
Mbappé, for his part, publicly defended Dembélé from criticism during the World Cup after a rough run of form.
At the same time, reports from that same tournament suggested underlying tension, with Dembélé said to have confronted Mbappé over his defensive effort, and further friction reported when Mbappé took the captain’s armband from N’Golo Kanté with around ten minutes left in a match, on the day Kanté had been wearing it for the first time, on his own birthday.
Taken together, it’s less a straightforward feud and more a relationship that swings between mutual respect and quiet competitive tension, playing out in real time as both players head into the 2026 Ballon d’Or race, with the ceremony set for October 26 in London and Dembélé defending the title he won the year before.
