Mbappe will win more Ballons d’Or than Ron: Campos

Kylian Mbappe will be a "much better" player than Cristiano Ronaldo and win more Ballons d'Or than the Portuguese, according to former AS Monaco technical director Luis Campos.

Ronaldo has the joint-highest number of Ballons d'Or, winning football's most prestigious individual prize on five occasions, the same as Lionel Messi.

Paris Saint-Germain star Mbappe has yet to win the accolade, but this year was the inaugural winner of the Trophee Kopa, which is awarded to the best young player in the world.

The striker was also just named France's Player of the Year for the first time for his exploits in helping Les Bleus win the World Cup for the second time in Russia in July.

Mbappe, who turned 20 last week, has scored more goals in his teens (73) than both his idol Ronaldo and Messi (both 21), however, neither played as an attacker in their teens.

Campos saw the Frenchman's prodigious talents up close when the pair were at Monaco, and believes Mbappe will end up at Ronaldo's old stomping ground in Madrid.

The Lille sporting director, who has been linked with similar roles at Manchester United and Chelsea, told French TV programme Telefoot: "Kylian represents champagne football, which we like to see, and as a high-level footballer, I see him wearing the Real Madrid jersey because it is a club made to his measure, where the great players want to go.

"In the future, I imagine myself attending a match at the Santiago Bernabeu and enjoying the show that Mbappe can offer.

"Nowadays, he is more decisive than Neymar, and considering his age, he'll be much better than Cristiano Ronaldo.

"I see him winning more Ballons d'Or."

PSG will loathe to lose the star they paid French rivals Monaco £166m (S$289.6 million) for, but French publication Mediapart have suggested that the Ligue 1 giants will likely have to part with either Mbappe or Neymar next year to comply with Uefa's financial fair play (FFP) rules.

PSG were sanctioned by European football's governing body in 2014 for breaching FFP rules and have come under scrutiny again.

Uefa announced in September that it was reopening an FFP investigation into the club after news reports suggested the club's sponsors, several of whom have ties to the PSG's Qatari owners, have been paying inflated sums to artificially boost the club's income levels.

Real were interested in Mbappe before he signed for PSG in 2017, and have been linked to both him and Neymar as they seek to replace Ronaldo - who departed for Juventus for 100 million euros (S$156.5 million) in July.

Los Blancos have struggled since Ronaldo's departure, sacking coach Julen Lopetegui after just 138 days.

His replacement, Santiago Solari, has steadied the ship but Real remain eight points off La Liga leaders Barcelona in fourth place, albeit with a game in hand.

NOT DEAD

However captain Sergio Ramos has remained positive, saying: "Real Madrid can't be considered dead because we'll be there or thereabouts come the end of the season."

For former Barcelona player Jordi Cruyff, the situation at Real should serve as a warning for Barca, with their own talisman Lionel Messi now 31.

"What happened to Real is a warning for Barca," the Chongqing Dangdai Lifan coach and son of Barcelona icon Johan Cruyff told Spanish publication Sport.

"Real players are still great, but in football you need that player who, even losing 2-0, (makes) you think you can win.

"It happens with Messi.

"It's much more than football... it is belief.

"You analyse Real and you see that Cristiano was the man who holds the umbrella.

"When it rains, nobody gets wet.

"Now, there is no umbrella."