Benzema win his first Ballon d’Or

Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema has won the 2022 Ballon d’Or award, the most prestigious award in football. Tottenham’s Son Heung-min ranked 11th of 30 nominees.

The Real Madrid striker won the men’s prize in the 2022 Ballon d’Or held in Paris, France on Tuesday. Launched in 1956, the Ballon d’Or is an annual football award presented by the French news magazine France Football. It is given to the best footballer of the year based on performance over the season. Benzema ranked first by winning the most votes from the 100 media voters, ahead of Sadio Mane (Bayern Munich) and Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City).

Born in France, Benzema led Real Madrid to victory in the UEFA Champions League and La Liga in 2021-22. He scored 27 goals in La Liga and 15 in the Champions League. Benzema was also named UEFA Men’s Player of the Year the last season.

After receiving the Ballon d’Or trophy from Zinedine Zidane, a French professional football player and the Ballon d’Or winner of 1998, Benzema said that the Ballon d’Or has always been his dream. “I had two role models in my life: Zizou [Zinedine Zidane] and Ronaldo,” Benzema said.

BBC reported that Benzema became the second oldest player to win the award at 34 years and 302 days old since Stanley Matthews won the very first Ballon d’Or in 1956 at 41 years and 10 months. “Age is just a number. The key is determination. My dreams have pushed me to do better,” Benzema wrote on his Twitter account. Karim Benzema made his debut in 2005 for Lyon, and he has been playing for Real Madrid since 2009. Benzema has emerged from Cristiano Ronaldo’s shadow to become Real Madrid’s top striker from the 2018-19 season.

Son Heung-min, who ranked 22nd in his first nomination in 2019 for the Ballon d’Or award, ranked 11th this time. Ronaldo, a five-time winner, ranked 20th, and seven-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi, who currently plays for Paris Saint-Germain, has been excluded from the nominees for the first time since 2005.


Jae-Yeong Yoo elegant@donga.com