Karim Benzema’s ‘goal’: Ballon d’Or, Champions League and a World Cup in one year?

What a year it’s been for Karim Benzema. Last season the French striker scored 44 goals in 46 games as Real Madrid lifted the La Liga, Uefa Champions League, Spanish Super Cup and Uefa Super Cup trophies. And last night his personal achievements were also recognised as he was crowned the world’s best male footballer by being awarded the 2022 Ballon d’Or.

Enjoying the best season of his career, Benzema ended the 2021-2022 campaign as the leading goalscorer in both La Liga and the Champions League. His Ballon d’Or win means he also became the first Frenchman to receive the “golden football” since Zinedine Zidane in 1998. It was perhaps fitting that former Real head coach Zidane was on hand to present Benzema with the trophy, which is voted for by 100 journalists from around the world.

At a “lavish ceremony” at Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, Benzema received the highest number of votes to claim the “most prestigious individual award in men’s football”, said Eurosport. Bayern Munich’s Sadio Mane and Manchester City’s Kevin de Bruyne finished second and third respectively. Barcelona and Spain midfielder Alexia Putellas retained the Women’s Ballon d’Or with Arsenal and England striker Beth Mead second and Chelsea and Australia forward Sam Kerr third.

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‘Age is just a number’

In the Champions League for Real last season Benzema scored 15 goals and produced a number of sensational performances. He scored hat-tricks at home against Paris Saint-Germain in the round of 16 and away at Chelsea in the quarter-final. The striker also netted a magnificent late “Panenka” penalty at Manchester City which set up Real to win the semi-final 6-5 on aggregate.

Real head coach Carlo Ancelotti praised his skipper for his leadership and for setting an example to the rest of the squad. “He has so much personality,” Ancelotti said after Real’s win at Chelsea in April. “He knows he’s a very important player here. Karim improves every day like a fine wine.”

At 34 years and 302 days old, Benzama is the oldest winner of the Ballon d’Or since Stanley Matthews in 1956. Receiving the trophy in Paris, he said that “age is just a number for me” and he still has a “burning desire” to succeed. “It is this drive that has kept me going and never allowed me to let up,” he added. “It kept this dream alive and was the fire behind me. I just want to make the most of it.”

‘A player and a man transformed’

After signing for Real Madrid in 2009, Benzema spent a large part of his career “playing second fiddle to Cristiano Ronaldo”, said Gill Clark on Goal.com. But after thriving in recent years it’s “no surprise” to see him scoop the award and to become the “talisman” at the Spanish club.

For Benzema, winning the Ballon d’Or is “confirmation that he is a player and a man transformed” since his six years in exile from the French national team, said the AFP news agency. It was not long ago that he was “a pariah”, and “frozen out” of the France squad for five and a half years because of his involvement in a blackmail scandal over a sextape involving his former team-mate Mathieu Valbuena. Handed a one-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of €75,000, in June “he decided not to appeal his conviction, eager to turn the page and keep the focus on football”.

Ambitions and dreams still to fulfil

Benzema made his international return for France after being named in Didier Deschamps’s squad for Euro 2020. He missed out on France’s Fifa World Cup win in 2018, but will be hoping to “cap off an incredible year” by helping his country retain that title this winter, said AFP. He turns 35 on 19 December – a day after the final in Qatar.

Winning the World Cup with France is “a dream to fulfil”, said Spanish newspaper AS. For Benzema his ambition – and “goal right now” – is to go to the World Cup and “do everything I can to win it”.