Karim Benzema received the lads’s Ballon d’Or 2022 award in Paris on Monday to cap off an unbelievable 2021-22 European soccer season. The Actual Madrid striker additionally turned the primary Frenchman to assert the award since Zinedine Zidane did in 1998. Benzema led Madrid to the Champions League and La Liga titles final season.
He scored 44 objectives in 46 matches, together with 15 within the Champions League. Among the 34-year-old’s main exploits included a 17-minute second-half hat-trick towards PSG within the spherical of 16 of Champions League, after which one other away vs Chelsea within the quarter-final first leg. He additionally discovered the again of the web thrice over each legs of the semi-final fixture towards Manchester Metropolis.
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After receiving the award, Benzema stated, “This makes me actually proud, all of the work I did, I by no means gave up”.
“I had two function fashions in my life, Zidane and Ronaldo as effectively. I at all times had this dream in my thoughts that all the pieces’s doable. There was a troublesome interval the place I wasn’t within the French crew however I labored arduous and by no means gave up, saved my head down and loved enjoying soccer.”
“I am actually happy with my journey right here, it wasn’t simple, it was troublesome, for me and my household. To be right here right this moment, the primary time for me. I’m simply actually, actually completely satisfied, because of my teammates, with Actual Madrid and the nationwide crew”, he additional added.
He was named UEFA Participant of the 12 months in August this 12 months. He has additionally made his manner again into the nationwide crew after being frozen out for 5 and a half years as a result of a sextape blackmail scandal involving Mathieu Valbuena. He can be hoping to guide France’s FIFA World Cup title defence this 12 months.
Cristiano Ronaldo completed a poor twentieth, together with Tottenham’s Harry Kane (twenty first). Final 12 months’s Ballon d’Or Lionel Messi wasn’t even nominated this time after a disappointing debut season with PSG. Apart from Benzema, three different Actual Madrid gamers made it to the Ballon d’Or record; Vinicius Jr, Luka Modric, Thibaut Courtois and Casemiro (seventeenth, now at Manchester United). In the meantime, Riyad Mahrez got here in twelfth place and Luis Diaz ranked seventeenth within the standings. Additionally, younger Phil Foden completed in twenty second place, with Manchester Metropolis teammate Bernardo Silva in twenty second.
Barcelona’s Gavi received the Kopa Trophy and Alexia Putellas efficiently defended her Girls’s Ballon d’Or award.
Males’s Ballon d’Or Standings-
1. Karim Benzema (Actual Madrid)
2. Sadio Mane (Liverpool)
3. Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester Metropolis)
4. Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona/Bayern Munich)
5. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)
6. Kylian Mbappe (PSG)
7. Thibaut Courtois (Actual Madrid)
8. Vinicius Jr (Actual Madrid)
9. Luka Modric (Actual Madrid)
10. Erling Haaland (Manchester Metropolis/Borussia Dortmund)
11. Son Heung-min (Tottenham)
12. Riyad Mahrez (Manchester Metropolis)
13. Sébastien Haller (Ajax Amsterdam / Borussia Dortmund)
14. Rafael Leao (AC Milan)
14. Fabinho (Liverpool)
16. Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
17. Casemiro (Actual Madrid/Manchester United)
17. Dusan Vlahovic (Fiorentina/Juventus Turin)
17. Luis Diaz (Porto/Liverpool)
20. Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus/Manchester United)
21. Harry Kane (Tottenham )
22. Bernardo Silva (Manchester Metropolis)
22. Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool)
22. Phil Foden (Manchester Metropolis)
25. Darwin Nunez (Benfica/Liverpool)
25. Christopher Nkunku (RB Leipzig)
25. Joao Cancelo (Manchester Metropolis)
25. Antonio Rüdiger (Chelsea/Actual Madrid)
25. Mike Maignan (AC Milan)
25. Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich)
Here is full record of all winners through the awards ceremony:
Kopa Award
Gavi (Barcelona)
Girls’s Ballon d’Or Award
Alexia Putellas (Barcelona)
Gerd Muller Award
Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona)
Yashin Trophy
Thibaut Courtois (Actual Madrid)
Membership of the 12 months Award
Manchester Metropolis
Socrates Award
Sadio Mane (Liverpool)