Karim Benzema awarded the Ballon d'Or 2022
Karim Benzema on October 16, 2022. REUTERS - JUAN MEDINA
Text by: Farid Achache Follow
2 mins
Frenchman Karim Benzema was elected Ballon d'Or on Monday 17 October.
The Real Madrid player succeeds as a Frenchman his former coach Zinédine Zidane, awarded in 1998.
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Long before the announcement of the award, the Senegalese international Sadio Mané had slipped that Karim Benzema "
largely
" deserved to receive the Ballon d'Or.
Benzema becomes the first Frenchman to win the title since Zinedine Zidane in 1998. He is now part of the list of tricolors with Kopa, Platini, Zidane and Papin, to receive this world award.
Michel Platini, who won the Grail in 1983, even became the first player in history to win it three years in a row.
If Benzema is not there, his name on the charts is nonetheless an event, since it took twenty-four years for the tricolor clan.
27 goals in 32 La Liga games
Last August, the Real Madrid striker had already been named best player by UEFA.
A few days ago, during its annual gala, the Spanish sports daily Marca awarded him no less than three awards, including that of the best player in La Liga.
Author of 27 goals in 32 La Liga games during the 2021-2022 season, Karim Benzema was one of the great architects of the Spanish championship title obtained by the players of Carlo Ancelotti, for an impressive record of 44 goals in 46 meetings in all competitions, with 15 assists.
The Frenchman won his fifth Champions League with 15 goals, the third most of any single-season C1 campaign.
He scored 10 goals in the second round, the most by a player in a single exercise with Cristiano Ronaldo in 2016-17.
"KB9" is the author of two consecutive hat-tricks during the knockout phase (against PSG and Chelsea).
He crossed the Champions League with confidence and showed himself as the undisputed boss of the "White House".
He notably scored the 1000th goal in Real Madrid history in the Champions League in October 2021.
The 2022 World Cup in the lead
Benzema, who also won the Supercopa de España, recently confessed to having had the "best year of (his) career" with Real Madrid.
According to the Spanish press, the extension of his contract in Spain, which ends on June 30, 2023, is already in the pipeline.
With France, Benzema has registered five goals and one assist in seven appearances in 2021-22, including the equalizer against Spain in their Nations League final victory.
But all was not rosy in Blue.
Before the World Cup in Brazil in 2014, he held the sad record of 1,222 minutes spent without scoring a goal.
After this Ballon d'Or, Karim Benzema is now aiming for a world champion title in Qatar, he who had not been on the trip in 2018 for the triumph of the French in Russia.
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