On Monday, football’s most notable figures gathered for the 2019 Ballon d’Or ceremony presented by France Football. While Lionel Messi unsurprisingly walked away with his sixth Ballon d’Or, there was a special moment between host Didier Drogba and Paris Saint-Germain forward Kylian Mbappé.
A picture to remember! @SandyHeribert @KMbappe @didierdrogba #ballondor pic.twitter.com/bgzJpfqLBk
— #BallondOr (@francefootball) December 2, 2019
During the show, Mbappé was on stage with Drogba and the former Chelsea FC legend insisted on taking a selfie with the entire audience standing in the background. On the surface, this might seem like a typical award show stunt, but there’s more to it than that.
Back in 2009, Mbappé was in attendance at Stamford Bridge as Chelsea battled FC Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League, according to the Mirror. Prior to kickoff, Drogba agreed with a third party to take a picture with the young Frenchman.
Drogba explains why he took the selfie with Mbappe 🤳 pic.twitter.com/W1STtPFXhq
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) December 3, 2019
As you may recall, the game didn’t end with several Chelsea penalty shouts turned down by the referee and Andres Iniesta scoring late in the match to see the Catalan advance on the away goal rule.
Drogba was so upset by the result that he refused the photo with Mbappé that he previously agreed to. A decade later, the Ivorian made up for his transgression.
Mbappé finished sixth in the Ballon d’Or ranking behind Messi, Virgil van Dijk, Cristiano Ronaldo, Sadio Mané, and Mohamed Salah.
Ranked at the 6th place of the 2019 #ballondor ⤵️@KMbappe 🇫🇷@PSG_inside
Live ranking > https://t.co/cSurv8xUiL pic.twitter.com/PK46lTmWAj
— #BallondOr (@francefootball) December 2, 2019
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