"It's very damaging to football," Samuel Umtiti said, tired of the Ballon d'Or comments.

Samuel Umtiti, former defender for the French national team and current consultant for RMC Sport, deplores the applications of players to win the 2026 Ballon d'Or.

Samuel Umtiti is fed up with the talk surrounding the 2026 Ballon d'Or race. Discussions about the most prestigious individual award, to be presented on October 26 in London, have intensified this week with the resumption of the Champions League. On Monday, Kylian Mbappé openly declared that he felt more than credible enough to finally win the trophy, given his statistics and records, despite not having won titles with his club or national team.

"People think much more about winning the Ballon d'Or than about team awards."

On Tuesday, the organizers unveiled the list of 30 nominees, which includes the Frenchman as well as numerous other contenders, such as nine players from PSG, the Champions League winners. Ousmane Dembélé, who is set to win the award in 2025, believes that the Ballon d'Or should go to one of his teammates, while Lamine Yamal (Barcelona) reminded everyone that he won the World Cup with Spain. This deluge of nominations is taking its toll on Samuel Umtiti.

"He (Kylian Mbappé) is a confident person," the former Lyon and Barcelona defender reminded listeners on After Foot. "You could say it's not necessarily up to him to talk about that; he should focus on what's happening on the pitch. Everyone has seen that he's scored a lot of goals, that he's performed well at certain times, but if you ask him, 'Who do you think will win the Ballon d'Or?', he's been himself in the end. People may like it or not. Personally, I don't necessarily agree with it. Attacking players like this Ballon d'Or, but for me, it's not necessarily his place to decide."

"I'm not even watching this ceremony."

The 2018 World Cup winner also expressed surprise at the list of nominees and lamented the obsession of attacking players with this individual award at the expense of team trophies. "You include Quinones, but what did he do at the World Cup (four goals for Mexico, eliminated in the round of 16, editor's note)? When I saw that, I wondered if it was a joke. Seriously, I don't even watch this ceremony. For strikers, winning the Ballon d'Or is incredible. This ceremony has lost all meaning; it's very damaging to football, which is a very team-oriented sport. People think much more about winning the Ballon d'Or than about team awards. You can win a Champions League with your team, and you're only thinking about yourself. We're going to talk about stats again, and that's not enough. Football isn't just about stats."

"Since the Messi-Ronaldo era, I don't even look at that trophy anymore," concludes "Big Sam." "They had incredible stats, and if they didn't win a major title, you didn't really care because their season was incredible. Now, there isn't necessarily one great player above the rest."