Karim Benzema Is The Rightful Winner Of This Year’s Ballon d’Or

MADRID, SPAIN - MARCH 09: Karim Benzema of Real Madrid celebrates following their side's victory in ... [+] the UEFA Champions League Round Of Sixteen Leg Two match between Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on March 09, 2022 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images)

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We are now finally living in the post-Ronaldo and Messi era.

It has been a glorious era marked by their almost complete dominance of the Ballon d’Or which saw the pair win it for ten consecutive years between 2008 and 2017, and for twelve of the thirteen times it has been awarded in the last fourteen years.

During this time Lionel Messi won it seven times, Cristiano Ronaldo five times, with Luka Modric being the only player to gatecrash their party in 2018, when either of the pair would still have been worthy winners.

That year Ronaldo finished as runner-up to Modric and Messi came fifth, when it felt like the award’s voters were driven by a desire to give it to someone else.

In the three years since Messi has won it again in 2019 and rather generously in 2021, with it being cancelled in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Even in 2007 the pair both nearly won it, with Ronaldo finishing runner-up and Messi in third place behind the winner Kaka, who for the next ten years became a quiz question: “Who was the last player to win the Ballon d’Or before Messi and Ronaldo?”

It means that 2022 will incredibly be the first time for sixteen years that neither Ronaldo and Messi are in contention to win the award.

PARIS, FRANCE - DECEMBER 02: Lionel Messi (ARG / FC Barcelona) poses onstage after winning his sixth ... [+] Ballon D'Or award during the Ballon D'Or Ceremony at Theatre Du Chatelet on December 02, 2019 in Paris, France. (Photo by Kristy Sparow/Getty Images)

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There can now only be one real candidate to be crowned as the best player in the world at the award’s ceremony in Paris on Monday: Karim Benzema.

The Frenchman has played throughout the entire Messi and Ronaldo era, but not come close to winning the Ballon d’Or, never even coming in the final three, but this is certain to be his year.

Benzema signed for Real Madrid in the same summer as Ronaldo in 2009 and inevitably had to play in his shadow, but in the last twelve months he has been the main man and enjoyed the most stunning and prolific season of his career.

He finished the 2021-22 season with an incredible 44 goals in 46 games to help Real Madrid win both La Liga and the Champions League.

The 34-year-old striker had already enjoyed a brilliant career in the Spanish capital winning every trophy possible and scoring at an average of 23 goals per season across his twelve seasons there.

But last season he almost doubled that tally and was his side’s inspiration as they won their first Champions League since Ronaldo’s departure in 2018.

PARIS, FRANCE - MAY 28: Karim Benzema of Real Madrid lifts UEFA Champions League Trophy following ... [+] his team's victory in the UEFA Champions League final match between Liverpool FC and Real Madrid at Stade de France on May 28, 2022 in Paris, France. (Photo by Harriet Lander/Copa/Getty Images)

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It is Benzema’s outstanding form in the latter stages of the Champions League that has made him such an overwhelming favourite to win this year’s Ballon d’Or.

In the second leg of Real Madrid’s round of sixteen tie against Paris Saint-Germain in March earlier this year they were losing 2-0 on aggregate and seemingly on their way out, only for Benzema to score a barely believable hat-trick in the space of 17 minutes to knock out the shocked French champions.

At the age of 34, Benzema became the oldest player to score a hat-trick in the Champions League and in the course of it also reached 309 Real Madrid career goals to overtake the legendary Alfredo Di Stefano as the club’s third highest all-time goal scorer.

The following week Benzema’s two goals against Real Mallorca in La Liga also saw him overtake Thierry Henry as the all-time French leading goal scorer with 413 goals.

In the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals, Benzema scored another hat-trick against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in a 3-1 win, and in the second leg scored the tie’s winner in extra-time to put them through to the last four 5-4 on aggregate.

Benzema’s Champions League heroics continued in the semi-finals when he scored three more goals across the tie’s two games as Real Madrid triumphed 6-5 on aggregate over Manchester City.

TOPSHOT - France's forward Karim Benzema (L) and France's forward Kylian Mbappe arrive for a ... [+] training session at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, north of Paris on June 7, 2021, on the eve of the friendly football match between France and Bulgaria. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP) (Photo by FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images)

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There would be no crowing goal in the final but Real Madrid beat Liverpool 1-0 in Paris to secure Benzema’s fifth Champions League. He also finished as the tournament’s leading scorer with 15 goals and was voted the Champions League Player of the Year.

In La Liga he won his first Pichichi Trophy as Spain’s leading scorer with 27 goals in 32 games as Real Madrid became Spanish champions for a record 35th time.

This avalanche of goals, so many of them crucial game-changing contributions, brought his side two titles and has made it almost certain he will also win the Ballon d’Or.

He also doesn’t have any real competition, and there will be little suspense when the winner’s name is read out at the Chatelet Theatre on Monday.

Two of Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappe and Mohamed Salah should feature in the final three, but they have no chance of winning it themselves.

This promises to be the greatest individual moment of Benzema’s career, and also coming just two months before he turns 35, an age where most strikers are some way past their best, he has spectacularly proved it is never too late. 

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