Madrid’s Benzema Crowned 2022 Ballon d’Or Winner

Karim Benzema has won his first Ballon d’Or award. This makes him the fifth Frenchman to win the highly coveted prize. The 34-year-old managed to score forty-four goals in forty-six matches last season.

These accomplishments contributed to his club Real Madrid in winning the Champions League, another LaLiga title along with the Spanish and European Super Cups. His former coach at Real Madrid Zidane was the one who awarded him the trophy during the ceremony that was held at Paris.

“It makes me really proud. All the work I did, I never gave up. It was a childhood dream like all kids have. I had two motivations in my life – Zidane and Ronaldo. I’ve always had this dream in my mind that anything is possible. There was a difficult period where I wasn’t in the French team, but I never stopped working hard nor gave up. I always kept my head, concentrated on playing football and I’m really proud of my journey here. It wasn’t easy, it was a difficult time. It was hard for my family as well. To be here today, for the first time for me, I’m happy and pleased with my work and I keep going,” Benzema said as he received the award.

He received the award alongside Alexia Putellas who won the Ballon d’Or feminine category. Thibaut Courtois won the Yashin Trophy as the season’s best goalkeeper, while Robert Lewandowski took home the Gerd Muller prize as the best striker in the world.

Manchester City was awarded club of the year. Benzema won ahead of Bayern Munich’s Sadio Mané and Manchester City’s midfielder Kevin De Bruyne. Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo finished at twentieth with Tottenham’s Harry Kane finishing at number twenty-one.

The Ballon d’Or organizers added a humanitarian prize that was named after the late Brazil midfielder Socrates. The trophy went to Sadio Mané for his charity work in Senegal – building a hospital and offering school donations.