The 66th edition of the Ballon d'Or speaks French.
The prestigious award assigned by France Football magazine to the best footballer of the year went to Karim Benzema, 34-year-old striker of the French national team and Real Madrid, last season 44 goals in 46 games and Champions League on the bulletin board.
The handover ceremony took place at the Theater du Chatelet in Paris.
“I think of when I was a child, of all the work that I put behind me.
I grew up
- Benzema commented with emotion -
with this dream in my head, and it was a great motivation.
I have had two role models in life
- he continued -
Zidane and Ronaldo.
This
- concluded the champion of the blancos -
it is an individual reward, but it comes thanks to collective work;
this is the people's Golden Ball ".
Among the women, a Blaugrana victory.
Despite the absence of him in the last European due to a serious injury, the 28-year-old Spanish striker Alexia Putellas won.
For the first time this year, the regulation provided that performances and titles obtained in the sporting season (in this case 2021-2022) and no longer in the calendar year were taken into consideration.
No Italian among the stars 2021 - 2022. Leao, Milan's Portuguese striker, first of the footballers to play in the Bel Paese championship.
For him the fourteenth placement.
Below is the men's ranking from first to 25th place
The ranking
1. Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)
2. Sadio Mané (Bayern Munich)
3. Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)
4. Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona)
5. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)
6. Kylian Mbappé (Paris-SG)
7. Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid)
8. Vinicius Jr (Real Madrid)
9. Luka Modric (Real Madrid)
10 Erling Haaland (Manchester City)
11 Son Heung-min (Tottenham)
12 Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City)
13 Sébastien Haller (Borussia Dortmund )
14 Rafael Leao (Milan)
15 Fabinho (Liverpool)
16 Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
17 Dusan Vlahovic (Juventus)
17 Luis Diaz (Liverpool)
17 Casemiro (Manchester United)
20 Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
21 Harry Kane (Tottenham)
22 Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool)
22 Phil Foden (Manchester City)
22 Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)
25 Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich)
25 Joao Cancelo (Manchester City)
25 Christopher Nkunku (Leipzig)
25 Darwin Nunez (Liverpool)
25 Antonio Rudiger (Real Madrid)
25 Mike Maignan (Milan)
Gavi won the "Kopa Trophy";
the 18-year-old Barcelona midfielder won the award reserved for the best young player of the year.
In the last edition the award went to Pedri, another Blaugrana.
Finally a note.
Benzema's triumph was improperly anticipated on social media: the Spanish agency Efe announced the awarding of the Golden Ball to the champion of the blancos on Twitter before the official announcement.
The tweet was later deleted.