MADRID, 17 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Real Madrid’s French striker, Karim Benzema, was chosen this Monday as the winner of the ‘Golden Ball’ for the 2021-2022 season, thus confirming the favoritism that he was given as the great favorite after his great last campaign.
The 34-year-old from Lyon wins this award for the first time, which is awarded by the prestigious sports magazine in his country ‘France Football’, which had changed the criteria to designate its winner, starting by only taking into account the football campaign and not the calendar year as before.
Benzema, who received the award from Zinédine Zidane, the last French winner of the award (1998), takes over from Argentine Leo Messi after probably having the best year of his career on a collective level, but above all on an individual level. The striker won his fifth Champions League, a competition where he was their top scorer with 15 goals, ten of them in the round of crosses towards the final, with two hat-tricks against PSG in the round of 16 and against Chelsea in the quarterfinals.
In addition, the Frenchman was also the leader of his team in the double with LaLiga Santander, where he was also the top scorer with 27 goals, his highest figure since his arrival in the summer of 2009 at the 14-time European champion.
Benzema, already chosen as the best European player last season and the fifth from his country to win this trophy after ‘Zizou’, Raymond Kopa, Michel Platini and Jean-Pierre Papin, completed his poker game of the season with the Spanish Super Cup and with the title with his Nations League team, where he scored a great goal in the final against Spain.
Now, the striker, who grew up at Olympique de Lyon in his country before moving to Real Madrid, becomes the club’s fifth player to win the Ballon d’Or after Cristiano Ronaldo, who won four, Alfredo Di Stéfano (2 ), Luka Modric (1) and Raymond Kopa (1). In total, counting the trophies won by Luis Figo, Ronaldo Nazario and Fabio Cannavaro, who received it as madridistas but without playing the season or the calendar year with the team, the merengue club has a total of 12 trophies.