Real Madrid skipper, Karim Benzema has been awarded the 2022 men’s Ballon d’Or at a ceremony held in Paris.
The French man scoop the prestigious award after an incredible year with Real Madrid which saw him win the Champions League and LaLiga at the Santiago Bernabéu
Benzema netted a career-best 27 times in LaLiga last season and was the top scorer in the Champions League with 15 goals, including hat tricks against Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea.
He is the fifth French player to win the award
Karim Benzema has won the men’s Ballon d’Or, becoming just the second player outside of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to be awarded the prize in the past 15 years. Benzema won the trophy after leading Real Madrid to the LaLiga and Champions League double last season and scoring a remarkable 44 goals in 46 appearances for the Spanish club.
Benzema finished ahead of Sadio Mane and Kevin De Bruyne at the Paris ceremony to crown a sensational year for the France international, as he followed his Real Madrid team-mate Luka Modric by breaking through Messi and Ronaldo’s dominance of football’s greatest individual prize.
The 34-year-old is also the oldest winner of the Ballon d’Or since Stanley Matthews won the inaugural award in 1956, as well as the first French winner of the prize since Zinedine Zidane in 1998. Zidane, who managed Benzema across two spells at Real Madrid, was in Paris to present the striker with the award
Earlier, Barcelona captain Alexia Putellas became the first two-time winner of the Ballon d’Or Feminin after taking back-to-back awards. England and Arsenal forward Beth Mead, who was the top scorer at Euro 2020, finished second, ahead of the Chelsea striker Sam Kerr. Barcelona midfielder Gavi won the Kopa Trophy for best young player while Thibaut Courtois won the Yashin Trophy for best goalkeeper.
