Finally.
Karim Benzema’s Ballon d’Or quest has come to a long-awaited end as the 34-year-old claimed the coveted prize in Monday’s ceremony, seeing off competition from Sadio Mane and Kevin De Bruyne to be named the best player in the world.
In truth, it’s a result which we all expected. Benzema racked up 44 goals and 15 assists in 46 games for Real Madrid as they romped to La Liga and Champions League glory, finishing comfortably at the top of both competitions’ scoring charts. That’s about as emphatic a case as one could make for winning.
For Benzema, it’s the completion of a redemption arc which he never should have had to face anyway. After playing second-fiddle to Cristiano Ronaldo for years, many questioned whether the Frenchman was ever good enough to be a team’s primary option and, to paraphrase Michael Jordan, Benzema clearly took that personally.
He bagged 21 goals in his first year sans Ronaldo and repeated that in 2019/20, before boosting his goal numbers even further and flashing a creative side that saw him become the complete striker.
“It was an honour to play with [Ronaldo], he’s a beast,” Benzema said after winning the prize. “The day he left, the ambition to be more entered my head.”
These days, Benzema could hardly be more if he tried.
Without taking anything away from Benzema’s individual achievements, it’s no secret that winning trophies is vital to any player’s aspirations of lifting the Ballon d’Or.
Having ended the 2020/21 campaign without any silverware, Real Madrid parted ways with Zinedine Zidane and rehired the legendary Carlo Ancelotti, who quickly realised that they key to success was allowing Benzema to be Benzema.
The Frenchman scored two goals on the first day of the La Liga campaign and never looked back. In fact, Los Blancos remained top of the table for all but one week – temporarily dropping behind Sevilla after the second round of fixtures before reclaiming their rightful place at the top.
In the end, Real finished 13 points clear of the competition, with Benzema’s 27 goals an undeniably crucial part of that.
The Spanish Supercopa came midway through the campaign as well, but Benzema’s Ballon d’Or triumph was effectively sealed as Los Blancos went all the way in the Champions League back in May – a triumph the team owes almost exclusively to Benzema.
Real were good in Europe but they still ended up losing to PSG, Chelsea and Manchester City across the knockout stages, facing elimination from the competition in each and every…
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