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The Real Madrid forward could win the individual prize for the first time later this month.
This October could turn out to be one of the most important months of Karim Benzema’s life. The striker will play several important matches for Real Madrid, including ElClasico on October 16th, while he’ll also find out if he has won the first Ballon d’Or award of his illustrious career. The gala for the 2022 Ballon d’Or will be held on October 17th and Benzema leads the list of 30 candidates; the Real Madrid striker is the clear favourite to win this year’s prize.
There seems to be consensus on who should win the 2022 Ballon d’Or. There is every reason to place Benzema as the favourite, given that the Frenchman was the superstar of the Real Madrid side that won LaLiga Santander, the Spanish Super Cup and the Champions League last season. It was his best campaign in terms of goals and assists stats, with 44 goals and 15 assists across all competitions.
This year, there is a change in how the Ballon d’Or is decided. As of 2022, the award will no longer be given based on performances in the calendar year, as it’ll now be evaluated by the football season. In other words, only the 2021/22 campaign will be considered, a season in which Benzema stood out for his performances.
However, the striker isn’t the only Real Madrid or LaLiga Santander player to have been nominated. The Frenchman is one of seven candidates who ply their trade in LaLiga Santander. Among the 30 contenders, there are also his teammates Thibaut Courtois, Vinícius, Casemiro, Luka Modrić and Antonio Rüdiger. Robert Lewandowski, FC Barcelona’s summer signing, is a nominee too.
If this year’s Ballon d’Or is won by Benzema, or by any other LaLiga Santander player, it will further consolidate the dominance of Spanish football in this award. Looking at the history of the prize, the winner has belonged to a LaLiga Santander club on 23 occasions. That is followed by Serie A with 18 winners, the Bundesliga with nine and the Premier League with six.
Looking just at the 21st century, 15 of the 21 winners so far have played for a Spanish club during the year they won. That was the case with Ronaldo Nazário (Real Madrid, 2002), Ronaldinho (FC Barcelona, 2005), Fabio Cannavaro (Real Madrid, 2006), Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019 and 2021), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017) and Luka Modrić (Real Madrid, 2018).
Benzema hopes to become the eighth different player to win the Ballon d’Or while playing for Real Madrid and the seventh different player from LaLiga Santander to win it this century. Given his performances last season, it is likely that he’ll be presenting the trophy to the Real Madrid fans at the Bernabéu in just a few weeks.
The full list of nominees for the 2022 Ballon d’Or:
Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid)
Rafael Leão (AC Milan)
Christopher Nkunku (RB Leipzig)
Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)
Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich)
Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool)
Robert Lewandowski (FC Barcelona)
Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)
Vinícius Júnior (Real Madrid)
Luis Díaz (Liverpool)
Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)
Fabinho (Liverpool)
Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City)
Son Heung-min (Tottenham Hotspur)
Casemiro (Real Madrid)
Phil Foden (Manchester City)
Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur)
Sadio Mané (Bayern Munich)
Darwin Núñez (Liverpool)
Mike Maignan (AC Milan)
Sébastien Haller (Borussia Dortmund)
Luka Modrić (Real Madrid)
Antonio Rüdiger (Real Madrid)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)
João Cancelo (Manchester City)
Erling Haaland (Manchester City)
Kylian Mbappé (Paris Saint-Germain)
Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
Dušan Vlahović (Juventus)
