When Karim Benzema took the honorary stage of the Châtelet Theater in the French capital, Paris, to receive the Ballon d'Or for the best player in the world for 2022, cheers and applause rose throughout the luxurious hall, but this French player of Algerian origin seemed calm, overpowered by confidence and pride in At the same time, it seemed that he was quickly reviewing the tape of events that he experienced in recent years, but throughout his football career, the bulk of which he spent at Real Madrid.
And on Monday evening, Benzema was crowned with the Ballon d'Or award, which France Football magazine gives annually to the best player among the players active in Europe, leading the vote at the expense of other stars led by Senegalese striker Sadio Mane, Bayern Munich striker, and Egyptian Mohamed Salah, Liverpool's top scorer in England and France. Kylian Mbappe, Paris Saint-Germain player, and Brazilian Vinicius Junior, Benzema's teammate at Real Madrid.
Here is the image you've all been waiting for!
Karim Benzema!
#ballondor with @adidasFR pic.twitter.com/TJze0Km1s6
— Ballon d'Or #ballondor (@francefootball) October 17, 2022
In contrast to the past ten years, in which the competition seemed fierce until the last moments in the race to crown the most glorious personal awards in football, the “Golden Ball 2022” was one of the most missed versions, because our star - who took charge of leading Real Madrid to crowns New - All voting intentions topped the list, and won the largest percentage of nominations to be the 66th Ballon d'Or holder, succeeding Argentine Lionel Messi, who missed the nominees to win the award for the first time since 2006.
Benzema's road to glory
In contrast to his calm and shy personality, Benzema's career was full of difficulties and obstacles, and his path towards becoming the best player in the world was complex, as he had to overcome many of the difficulties he faced with his club or more in the France team.
The career of this star, who is always proud of his Algerian and Arab origins, seems to be an inspiring story for many young people and children in the world, and a model of the ability to confront the skeptical campaigns that were not limited to Real fans, but also from the fans of the “roosters” team. He even said in one of his statements in response On the criticism of French fans, "When I score for the national team, I am French, and when I miss goals, I become Arab," in reference to his racial prejudice.
The journey to the top was not easy for the child who grew up in the suburb of "Bron", one of the popular areas in Lyon, with his parents "Hafeez" and "Malika" and 7 other brothers and sisters, Benzema was the seventh.
At the age of nine, the boy, born on December 19, 1987, joined the buds of the "Bron Tyrion" club, but the year 1997 was the first zigzag in his football career, after a match that brought his team to Olympique Lyon, and witnessed his brilliance in a way that drew the attention of the French club officials, who decided to include him without Frequency.
Benzema was included in the emerging categories at Olympique Lyon, making remarkable offers between 1997 and 2005, the date of his first 3-year professional contract with the club, and at that time he was not over the age of 17. To be one of the best players in the world, especially when he saw his promising numbers when he scored 12 goals in 14 games for the Lyon reserve team in the 2004/2005 season.
Benzema spent 4 years with Lyon between 2005 and 2009, a period that was witnessing a period of control that was closer to sweeping Lyon over French football, and after that he chose to leave the "Guerlain" stadium towards a much more welcoming march, a march whose main title was: Neighboring the most famous football stars along the lines of Brazilian Kaka, Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo and Spain's Xabi Alonso.
Benzema's career with Olympique Lyon was not long in terms of years, but the central attacking player was able to leave the club's fans with something to forgive him for his urgent exit, as he scored 66 goals in about 140 games, the first of which was on January 15, 2005 against Metz.
With the start of his career at Real in July 2009, it seemed natural that the lights would recede from this 21-year-old and a few months old French striker. The Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, which finished fourth in the "Merengue" deals worth 35 million euros, behind Ronaldo (94 million), Kaka (65 million) and Alonso (35.4 million).
The fertile and fertile seasons
Benzema's beginnings in Real were not promising. The presence of the "royal" icon and his historical scorer at the time was Raul, Argentine Gonzalo Higuain, and Ronaldo's arrival was enough to be most of the time outside coach Manuel Pellegrini's first season in Madrid, and Benzema's attendance was limited to 14 games, He only scored 8 goals at a time when his team finished the La Liga campaign as a runner-up for Barcelona and was eliminated from the European Champions League against Olympique Lyonnais.
Before the start of the 2010/2011 season, which witnessed the arrival of coach Jose Moreno to lead the "Royal", Benzema said at the time that he would do his best to shine in his second season in Real, which he had always considered his dream team, but the arrival of Togolese striker Emmanuel Adebayor prevented him from emerging again.
In the 2011/2012 season, Benzema scored 21 goals in the Spanish league and 7 in the Champions League, then 24 goals in all competitions, the 2013/2014 season, which saw Meringue crowned the Champions League for the first time since 2002, after 12 full years.
Despite winning a place under the sun in the middle of the constellation of stars, and his contribution to the coronation of several titles, Benzema’s career with Real was interrupted by lean seasons, and he went through difficult periods that coincided with the club’s departure from the local titles podium between 2012 and 2017, despite winning the European Champions League in 2016, 2017, 2018 and the Club World Cup. same period.
The year 2018 was the most difficult for Benzema, on a personal level, as he scored only 5 goals in the local league, along with 5 others in the Champions League, the competition that "Royal" won its title at the time for the third time in a row and the 13th in its history.
The fate of Benzema that season was at stake, and the blackmail case in which he was implicated against his teammate Matteo Valbuena had cast a shadow over his career at Real, which made criticism rained down on him at a time when Spanish newspapers suggested his departure from Meringue, coinciding with the circulation of Spanish reports confirming the imminence of a contract with the Englishman. Harry Kane.
At that time, the player broke his silence, saying, "I am in the best team in the world. We have a group of players who form the pillars of the group. We are looking forward to achieving great results in the new season."
The star of Algerian origin was on his promise to Real fans, after many years during which he lived with Ronaldo, Benzema rose up like a phoenix to fly high and become the closest to the hearts of Meringue fans. The first season after "Cristiano's era" managed to score 21 goals in the League, as he scored like her The following season, before he achieved 23 goals for the 2020/2021 season.
And in the 2021/2022 season, Benzema reached the peak of his brilliance and efficiency, and his presence was very prominent in the crowning of Real in the Spanish League, scoring 27 goals, but the greatest of that was the strength that appeared in his performance in the European Champions League when he scored 15 goals to lead Real towards crowning the title for the 14th time in its history. The club and the fifth in his personal record, after well-established matches in which he starred against Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool and Saint-Germain.
Benzema finally came out of "Cristano's robe" and made himself so much glory that the French newspapers cheered his performances after they attacked him for a long time, at a time when European Union President Aleksander Ceferin gave him all the praise by saying that Benzema was "the player least appreciated and recognized for his stature."
In his career with Real, Benzema scored 328 goals in 615 matches, and also won 23 titles to occupy the third place in the list of the most capped players with "Al Malaki" behind Gento and Brazilian Marcelo.
Benzema lifts the Champions League title for the fifth time in its history (Getty)
Benzema does not sing the French anthem
On the international level, Benzema went through turbulent years in France, and many observers considered that he had fallen victim to his Algerian and Arab origins and paid a heavy price for his involvement in 2015 in the case of blackmailing his colleague in the roosters team Valbuena when he asked him for 150 thousand euros in exchange for not publishing an explicit video of him.
Although that case was saved after Benzema was sentenced to prison with a suspended sentence, it was the reason for his exclusion from the national team months before France hosted the 2016 European Nations Cup, as coach Didier Deschamps refused to include him in the list, and the player continued to be excluded from the “roosters” during the 2018 World Cup, which culminated France has what many considered a tacit victory for Deschamps over Benzema.
And before the World Cup, the coach said, "I have a balanced and harmonious group, thanks to which we managed to reach the final of Euro 2016. I have confidence in the players who respond on the field, I am the only decision-maker, and my decisions have a sports background."
But the year 2021 witnessed the height of the brilliance of the player nicknamed “the government” and amid calls from the French press for his return to the national team, Deschamps announced the return of the Real striker on the occasion of the European Nations, and Benzema fought on June 2, 2021 against the Wales national team, his first match in the France shirt after an absence of 6 years perfect.
In the European Nations League 2021, the French national team crowned the title after an exciting final against Spain, which was decided by the French with the goal of Benzema, who was named the best player in the competition.
The Real star succeeded in imposing himself strongly in the French national team, despite the ongoing campaigns against him by French extremist figures who accused him of not repeating the national peace, while the player said that he did not repeat it "because of the contents calling for war."
In his career with the "Rooster", Benzema played 97 games, during which he scored 37 goals, including 6 of the 2021/2022 season, in which he imposed himself as a star who deserved the Golden Ball for the first time in his career, after he was among the candidates on 10 previous occasions.