Mbappé spent the week explaining why he deserves the Ballon d’Or, and then scored twice against Rayo Vallecano
Real Madrid beat Rayo Vallecano 4-1 at the Bernabéu, with two goals and an assist from a striker who had just spent a press conference arguing his own case for the game’s biggest individual prize.
Sep 13, 2026
Kylian Mbappé spent the days before this match explaining to anyone who asked why he should win the Ballon d’Or without having won a trophy. Then he scored twice and made another as Real Madrid beat Rayo Vallecano 4-1 at the Bernabéu on Saturday. Whatever you make of the argument, the timing was not bad.
The case he made before kick-off
The ceremony is on 26 October, and Mbappé is not pretending he has not thought about it. “I always consider myself the best player in the world,” he said, and “this year can be a good one for me to win the Ballon d’Or.” He went into the trophy question himself before anyone else could. “People say I didn’t win a trophy, but it’s an individual award,” was his line, followed by the observation that no winner has ever been elected unanimously.
He does have a summer to point at. Mbappé finished the World Cup in North America with ten goals, a second Golden Boot to go with the one he won in 2022, and 22 goals in the competition overall, which took him past Lionel Messi as its leading scorer of all time. France still lost the third-place match to England 6-4 and went home with nothing.
Three goals in 35 minutes
Rayo had no answer to the first half hour. Mbappé scored the penalty on 14 minutes. Three minutes later Florian Lejeune played a loose pass back towards his own goalkeeper, Mbappé reached it first and squared for Álvaro Carreras, who took it into the box and finished with his left foot.
The third came on 35 minutes and was the tidiest of them. Vinícius Júnior pulled the ball back from the left, nobody picked up Jude Bellingham, and the England midfielder placed it past Emiliano Audero.
“We killed the game in the first half,” José Mourinho said afterwards. “That’s not easy, working like we did after the Champions League game, not just physically, but mentally.”
Camello answers, Güler settles it
Sergio Camello scored for Rayo six minutes into the second half, and Madrid’s lead was suddenly two rather than three. Mourinho’s response was to bring on Arda Güler, which he explained afterwards in terms of control rather than flair. “Today he made a difference in terms of the stability of the game,” he said.
Güler also supplied the pass for the fourth goal, sliding Mbappé in a minute into stoppage time for a low finish. Beñat San José, who had seen his side improve after the break, did not dispute the result. The early penalty, he said, was a blow, and Madrid were better.
Level at the top, with a game more played
Real Madrid have 12 points from five matches, the same total Barcelona have from four. Barcelona travel to Levante on Sunday evening and can go three clear again by the end of it.
Their one defeat remains the 1-0 at Betis on 4 September, where Troy Parrott came off the bench to score his first goal for the club and Álvaro Vallés saved a Mbappé penalty in injury time. Eight days later Mbappé took another one and put it away. Since Seville, Madrid have beaten Inter 2-1 in the Champions League and scored four against Rayo.
None of which decides an award that is voted on by journalists and handed out in six weeks. It does mean the striker making the loudest case for himself has spent the last two matches backing it up.