Kane and Mbappe Awarded Ballon d’Or Gerd Muller Trophy for Top Scoring

Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe were awarded the Ballon d’Or Gerd Muller Trophy, an honor recognizing Europe’s leading goal scorer, which is named after Bayern Munich icon Gerd Muller. Mbappe, a forward for Real Madrid, was not present at the ceremony held in Paris. England captain Kane, who transferred to Bayern Munich from Tottenham last summer, achieved 44 goals across 45 competitive matches during his inaugural season with the German team. Mbappe recorded 44 goals in 48 appearances during his concluding season with Paris St-Germain. The French forward, along with other representatives from Real Madrid, did not attend the event at Paris’ Theatre du Chatelet. Reports from AFP and various Spanish news outlets indicated that Real Madrid withdrew their plans to attend upon learning that Vinicius Junior would not be the recipient of the men’s award. The European champions informed AFP that their delegation would not participate “where it is not respected,” following the revelation that Vinicius, who was considered a favorite, would not be named the world’s best male player. Kane stated, “Thank you to my club Bayern Munich, all my staff, teammates, for helping me score all the goals I scored.” He continued, “It’s an honour to take this award from a club legend [Karl-Heinz Rummenigge]. It was a new chapter for me. Going to Germany, taking my family with me was a new experience, I didn’t know what to expect.” Kane added, “To get off to the start I did, credit to my teammates. I went along for the ride and we had a good season.” When Didier Drogba, a co-host of the ceremony, inquired about an aspect of his game Kane wished to enhance, the England captain responded, “My speed. Although age might be catching up with me.”