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France striker Karim Benzema won the Ballon d’Or at a ceremony in Paris on Monday, the reward coming after his stunning performances helped Real Madrid win the Champions League and La Liga last season.
Benzema, who is the first French winner of the most prestigious individual prize in football since Zinedine Zidane in 1998, scored 44 goals in 46 games for his club including 15 in the Champions League.
Benzema, who also won the UEFA Nations League with France last season, pushed Bayern Munich and Senegal star Sadio Mane into second place.
Kevin De Bruyne of Manchester City and Belgium was third, with Barcelona and Poland star Robert Lewandowski coming fourth.
Winning the award, which is given out by France Football magazine, caps a remarkable career revival for Benzema, who was frozen out of the France team for five and a half years because of his involvement in a blackmail scandal over a sex tape involving teammate Mathieu Valbuena.
He was later handed a one-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 75,000 euros ($73,848) for his involvement in the affair.
However, he returned to the national team for last year’s European Championship and will now go to the World Cup in Qatar with France next month.
He will turn 35 on December 19, the day after the World Cup final.
Benzema is the oldest winner of the Ballon d’Or since the very first winner, Stanley Matthews in 1956.
The former Lyon striker is also the fifth Frenchman to win the prize, with Raymond Kopa, Michel Platini, and Jean-Pierre Papin all getting their hands on the trophy before Zidane’s victory in 1998.
Sadio Mane Wins Maiden Socrates Award For Charity Works
Bayern Munich and Senegalese star Sadio Mane has clinched the first-ever Socrates Award for his charity works.
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| Mane is the reigning African Footballer of the Year |
The former Liverpool hitman won the prize at the 2022 Ballon d’Or award ceremony on Monday.
He has continued to grab the headlines beyond the pitch having built a hospital, and funded several schools and families in his Bambali hometown. He was also instrumental in the country’s fight against COVID-19.
“The Socrates Prize identifies the best social initiative by committed champions,” organisers of the award France Football Magazine said.
The prize is named after the footballer Socrates who co-founded the Corinthians Democracy Movement in opposition to the ruling military government in the 1980s in Brazil.
‘Make Things Better’
An elated Mane could not hide his joy after scooping the prize and pledged to do more.
“I’m really happy to be a guest tonight,” he said. “Sometimes, I’m a bit shy, but I’m really happy to do what I can do for my people to make things better.”
Mane, the African Footballer of the Year, also finished second behind French forward Karim Benzema in the Ballon d’Or award.
During his final season with Liverpool, the 30-year-old netted 23 times and also helped Senegal clinch their first Africa Cup of Nations crown earlier in the year.
Since his summer move to Germany, Mane has scored nine goals in 16 competitive matches for giants Bayern Munich.
The Senegalese striker is expected to play a key role for his country when the 2022 World Cup – his second – begins in Qatar later in the year.
Alexia Putellas Also Wins Second Successive Women’s Ballon d’Or
Spain’s Alexia Putellas won the women’s Ballon d’Or for the second year running on Monday, the reward coming after a season in which she was the top scorer as her club Barcelona reached the Champions League final.
The 28-year-old Putellas saw off stiff competition, notably from three stars of the England team that won the European Championship, to take the award following a campaign which also saw Barcelona win a domestic league and cup double.
The prize, awarded at a star-studded ceremony at the Chatelet Theatre in central Paris, is a consolation for Putellas who is currently recovering from a serious knee injury.
The injury saw her miss the Euro in England in July and means she is unlikely to play at all this season.
“It makes me even more annoyed to be injured, but I am very happy to be here,” Putellas said.
“To retain the trophy is much harder. When I injured my knee I thought my chances of winning it had gone but in the end the jury based their decision on the whole of last season, of which I only missed one month.”
Putellas scored 11 goals in the Champions League last season as holders Barcelona reached the final but lost to Lyon.
It is just the fourth time that a women’s Ballon d’Or has been awarded, with Norway’s Ada Hegerberg winning the inaugural prize in 2018 before United States superstar Megan Rapinoe succeeded her in 2019.
There was no Ballon d’Or gala in 2020 due to the pandemic before Putellas won it for the first time last year after helping Barca to Women’s Champions League glory for the first time in their history.
Putellas had already won the UEFA player of the year prize in August.
While Karim Benzema of Real Madrid is the overwhelming favourite to win the men’s prize later, the identity of the women’s winner appeared far less certain.
Beth Mead had been a leading contender after scoring six goals for England on their run to Euro glory on home soil, their first major tournament victory.
Her England teammates Lucy Bronze and Millie Bright had also been nominated, as had Hegerberg, who helped Lyon beat Barcelona in the Champions League final.
Lewandowski Wins Mueller Trophy For Top Scorer
Robert Lewandowski received the award for last season’s top goalscorer, renamed the Gerd Mueller Trophy, for the second straight year at the Ballon d’Or ceremony on Monday.
The 34-year-old, who joined Barcelona from Bayern Munich in the close season, scored 57 goals in 56 matches for club and country last term.
He was the top-scorer in the Bundesliga with 35 goals.
Lewandowski also won the award last year when it was presented for the first time, after breaking the Bundesliga scoring record for a single season, previously held by Mueller, with 41 goals.
But he is yet to win the Ballon d’Or itself, having narrowly missed out to Lionel Messi 12 months ago.
The Pole would have been a strong favourite to take the honours in 2020, but the ceremony was controversially scrapped due to the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on the football calendar.
AFP
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