Mbappe (24), captain of the France team, crowned for the fourth time after the years 2019, 2021 and 2022, beat the Swede Zlatan Ibrahimovic, triple winner of this prize, awarded since by the Players Association. 1994.
It is the seventh time in a row that a Saint-Germain player, league champion this season for the eleventh time in its history, in a record feat to break its association with Saint-Etienne, has won the award after Ibrahimovic ( 2016), Uruguayan Edinson Cavani (2017) and Brazilian Neymar (2018).
And after receiving the prize from the coach of the “Coqs” team, Didier Deschamps, he wanted “above all” to send “my sincere thoughts” to the second goalkeeper of the Spanish team, Sergio Rico, who fell from horse on Sunday. morning and was seriously injured.
He added: “There are more important things than football, the whole club is with it, and I wanted to have a sense of priorities by talking about that first.”
Mbappe praised the other players, including “Lens, who had a great season” and “Argentinian Messi, who also helped me”, but he was absent from the ceremony, and “it is a privilege to play with players like that.”
On winning the award for the fourth consecutive year, he said: “It makes me very happy, I always wanted to win, to write my name in the history of the tournament. Even with all the ambition I had, I did not expect to win so quickly.”
In response to a question about his future, last year’s vice-world champion confirmed: “I will stay here next season.”
The 2018 world champion dominates the French League this season, as he leads the scoring charts with 28 points, one goal ahead of Lyon striker Alexandre Lacazette before the round of 16.
Mbappe is looking to claim the ‘Ligue 1’ top scorer title for the fifth consecutive time, to equal the record of Jean-Pierre Baban, top scorer with Marseille between 1988 and 1992.
Mbappe has also scored 7 Champions League goals and played for amateur side Baye de Castel in the Coupe de France scoring five.
Mbappe has scored 11 goals for France since September 2022 and led them to the Qatar World Cup final, where he lost to Argentina’s Messi on penalties.
Lens manager Frank Eyes, 52, won the best manager award for the first time in his career, after leading his side to second place behind Capital Club.
He became the third Lens manager to win the award after Daniel Leclerc, who led the club to their only league title in 1998, and Joel Mueller, who finished second to Lyon in 2022.
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