His numbers from last season do not seem to leave any doubt that It could be Benzema who succeeds the Argentine Leo Messi at the ceremony scheduled on Monday at the Theater du Chatelet.
His titles in the Spanish League and the Champions League with Real Madrid, as well as the League of Nations with the French team, together with his 50 goals scored last season, make his coronation seem foretold.
In the fourth edition of the women’s Ballon d’Or, things do not seem so clear, although the Spanish Alexia Putellas and the English Beth Mead occupy the pole position.
Putellas, winner of the last edition and who was rewarded this year by UEFA as the best player on the continent, can retain the crown despite not playing the European Championship due to injury in 2022, which England won, with Mead as a figure, which makes you a serious contender.
other applicants
For Benzema, the main threats are Poland’s Robert Lewandowski, Senegal’s Sadio Mané and France’s Kylian Mbappé, but for one of them to take the trophy from Benzema would come as a surprise.
Lewandowski, who could not win the Ballon d’Or in 2020 as it was canceled due to the pandemic, shone at the national level, but not internationally, just like Mbappé, while Mané has a better letter of introduction, being a finalist in the Champions League and runner-up in the Premier with Liverpool, in addition to winning the African Cup with Senegal.
Leo Messi himself seems to have handed over the crown to Benzemaadmitting that the Frenchman deserves this year an award that the Argentine has won seven times.
I think there are no doubts, it is very clear that Benzema had a spectacular year.
Leo Messi
“I think there are no doubts, it is very clear that Benzema had a spectacular year. He ended up consecrating himself with the Champions League, being fundamental from the last 16 onwards in all the games. I think there are no doubts this year”, the PSG player told the TyC chain.
The fact that UEFA also rewarded the Frenchman as the best player of the season suggests that the crown cannot escape Benzema, who seems to have exploded since the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid in 2018, after many seasons in the shadows from Portuguese.
No favorite in women
In the women’s Ballon d’Or, the prize seemed destined for the Englishwoman Beth Mead, from Arsenal, declared the best player in the European Championship won by her national team, England, in a competition in which she shared first place in the ranking of scorers, but the Spaniard, who won the last Ballon d’Or, won the UEFA best player award to the general surprise, despite being injured for several months and not having been in the continental selection competition in July.
The Parisian ceremony will also crown the best goalkeeper of the season (Yashin Trophy), promised to Real Madrid’s Belgian goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois, and the most outstanding young player (Kopa Trophy).
To these awards is added a new reward, created in this edition, the “Socrates Prize”to highlight the work of soccer players, men or women, committed to social and charitable projects.