In 1569 Mercator put the world Globe directly in his map name.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercator_1569_world_map
The entire reason the projection needs to exist is to flatten a sphere.
In making this representation of the world we had three preoccupations. Firstly, to spread on a plane the surface of the sphere in such a way that the positions of places shall correspond on all sides with each other both in so far as true direction and distance are concerned and as concerns correct longitudes and latitudes; then, that the forms of the parts be retained, so far as is possible, such as they appear on the sphere. With this intention we have had to employ a new proportion and a new arrangement of the meridians with reference to the parallels.