France’s Balón de Oro 2022 winner Benzema ,The Real Madrid star won the Player of the Year award for the first time
Karim Benzema received another recognition for his excellent performance last season. The Real star won the 2022 Ballon d’Or. France’s long wait is over.
Benzema was awarded the Ballon d’Or 2022 by French magazine ‘France Football’ at a lavish ceremony in Paris on Monday night.
A French footballer won the Ballon d’Or after a long wait of two centuries. The last 1998 Zinedine Zidane claimed this award.
The legendary Zidane handed the award to the 34-year-old Benzema.
France sat with 7 Ballon d’Or next to Argentina, Netherlands, Portugal and Germany. Messi has won all of them for Argentina, a personal high.
Messi was not on the shortlist of 30 this time, the first time since 2005. Left Barcelona for PSG in August last year.
Cristiano Ronaldo, who is 20th on the list this year, has won the award five times. That’s his lowest in 17 years.
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While the March change to Ballon d’Or rules previously took into account a full year’s performance, this year the entire European football season (August-July) is taken into account.
Benzema’s performances and achievements last season put him in the running for the Ballon d’Or.
Benzema played a major role in Real’s record league win in the 2021–22 Champions League season. He was the highest scorer with 15 goals. He had 10 goals in the knockout stages.
Especially in the last sixteen and quarter-finals, the French star’s hat-trick defeated PSG and Chelsea. His goal against Manchester United in the semi-final match between two legs.
Benzema scored the highest 27 goals in Real’s La Liga win last time. In addition, he scored once in the semi-final and final on the way to the club’s Spanish Super Cup victory. He scored 44 goals in 46 matches across all competitions for the Madrid team.
Benzema also performed consistently in the national team. He was an important hero in France’s Nations League victory in October last year. He scored one goal each in the semi-final and final of the four-team finals.
Due to such an unprecedented performance, Benzema was recognized as the UEFA Player of the Year for the first time last August. This time he got a bigger recognition, Ballon d’Or!
List of the top thirty Ballon d’Ors:
First: Karim Benzema (Real Madrid/France)
Second: Sadio Mane (Liverpool/Bayern Munich/Senegal)
Third: Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City/Belgium)
4th: Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich/Barcelona/Poland)
Fifth: Mohamed Salah (Liverpool/Egypt)
Sixth: Kylian Mbappe (PSG/France)
Seventh: Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid/Belgium)
Eighth: Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid/Brazil)
9th: Luka Modric (Real Madrid/Croatia)
10th: Arling Holland (Borussia Dortmund/Manchester City/Norway)
XI: Son Heung Min (Tottenham Hotspur / South Korea)
12th: Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City/Algeria)
Thirteenth: Sebastian Haller (Borussia Dortmund/Côte de Voix)
Joint 14th: Fabinho (Liverpool/Brazil) Rafael Leao (AC Milan/Portugal)
16th: Virgil von Dijk (Liverpool/Netherlands)
Joint 17th: Luis Dias (Liverpool/Colombia), Dusan Vlahovic (Juventus/Serbia), Casemiro (Real Madrid/Manchester United/Brazil)
20th: Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United/Portugal)
21st: Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur/England)
Joint 22nd: Phil Foden (Manchester City/England), Bernardo Silva (Manchester City/Portugal), Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool/England)
Joint 25th: Joao Cancelo (Manchester City/Portugal), Darwin Nunes (Benfica/Liverpool/Uruguay), Josua Kimmich (Bayern Munich/Germany), Mike Mian (AC Milan/France), Antonio Rudiger (Chelsea/Real Madrid/Germany) , Christophe Nkunku (Leipzig/France)
Previous 10-time Footballer of the Year:
Unified FIFA Ballon d’Or
2012 Lionel Messi
2013 Cristiano Ronaldo
2014 Cristiano Ronaldo
2015 Lionel Messi
The Best FIFA Men’s Player Ballon d’Or
2016 Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo
2017 Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo
2018 Luka Modric Luka Modric
2019 Lionel Messi Lionel Messi
2020 Robert Lewandowski (not awarded due to covid)
2021 Robert Lewandowski Lionel Messi