Dembélé: No issues with France teammate Mbappé despite Ballon d’Or chatter

PARIS (AP) — Ousmane Dembélé dismissed “little squabbles” online pitting him and Kylian Mbappé against each other in their quest to win this year’s Ballon d’Or.

Players have been campaigning for the prestigious award, which will be announced at a ceremony in London on Oct. 26. Dembélé is bidding to win it for a second straight year, while Mbappé has never won it. Dembélé said there were no problems between them.

“No, nothing. I don’t comment on all of these stories,” Dembélé said Thursday ahead of France’s game against Italy in the Nations League on Friday. “I don’t comment on little squabbles on social media. At 29 years old, I’m not really thinking about that.”

Speculation of a rift started following comments Mbappé made during a recent interview with France Football magazine. When told that, 10 years ago, only a few observers would have thought that Dembélé would win the Ballon d’Or before him, Mbappé said he has “always been seen as the chosen one” whereas Dembélé “caught up really well.”

Dembélé said he spoke about it with Mbappé, but only “because we sit next to each other at the (dinner) table” with the France team. Mbappé previously brushed off any talk of tensions, saying “I don’t think there’s really any problem.”

Mbappé will miss the Italy game at Stade de France with a knee injury, meaning that Dembélé captains the side Friday as one of coach Zinedine Zidane’s recently established vice captains.

While he called it “an honor” to wear the armband, Dembélé praised the importance of Mbappé — France’s leading scorer with 67 goals and also the World Cup’s all-time leading scorer goals with 22.

“He’s scored an enormous amount of goals. When he’s here we’re very happy because he brings something extra,” Dembélé said. “But we’re a team and the 23 players involved are important. We don’t win with one, two, or three players.”

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