The France captain settled on Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ronaldo Nazario and Zinedine Zidane in an interview with Complex, conducted at France’s Clairefontaine training base.

“My football Mount Rushmore? In no particular order? Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, without hesitation. And I can’t leave out the Brazilian Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane.”

Between them, the four have collected 16 Ballon d’Or awards. Mbappe is himself in the running this year, with the 2026 ceremony set for the London Palladium on 26 October, and the question of where the Real Madrid forward himself belongs in the game’s pecking order has followed him through the build-up.

The Man Utd name on the list

Of the four, only one made his Ballon d’Or breakthrough at Old Trafford. Cristiano Ronaldo lifted the trophy in 2008 as a Manchester United player, the season he also won the Champions League with the club, and returned to United for a second spell before moving on again. Mbappe has spoken often about the Portuguese as his boyhood idol; childhood photos of a young Mbappe surrounded by Ronaldo posters have been circulating for years.

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Messi, his other headline pick, was Mbappe’s team-mate at Paris Saint-Germain for two seasons. The Frenchman has said the experience of sharing a dressing room with the Argentine reshaped his view of what a footballer can do on the pitch.

Zidane, now on the touchline

The fourth name carries a twist the interview did not need to spell out. Zidane is the man Mbappe now plays for, having been appointed France head coach in July on a deal running to the 2030 World Cup, succeeding Didier Deschamps. He named Mbappe as his captain when he unveiled his first squad on 18 September, ahead of a Nations League group-stage opener against Turkey in Izmit on 25 September.

The Brazilian Ronaldo rounds out the quartet, and it is the pick most rooted in Mbappe’s playing profile: a striker in the mould of the man who redefined the position through pace and finishing before injuries thinned out his prime.

The names left off

The list is as loud for who is not on it. Neymar, Mbappe’s former PSG partner, is out. So are Andres Iniesta and Xavi, the midfield architects of Spain’s era. Diego Maradona and Pele, the two players a generation of predecessors would have started with, are absent too. Mbappe stressed he was not ranking anyone. He was naming the four who came to mind first.

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His own case will be settled at the London Palladium on 26 October.

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