Benzema not only does not win the Ballon d’Or, but also does not even enter the podium of the award given by France Football. The award gala gradually unveiled the list produced by the votes of the magazine’s correspondents around the world, including Alfredo Relaño, former director of AS and current Honorary President of this newspaper.
Before revealing the first two positions, which are shared by Lewandowski (2nd) and Messi (1st), the Ballon d’Or gala revealed that fifth place goes to Kanté, fourth Benzema and third Jorginho. It had been speculated that the Real Madrid forward had good options to win the trophy, but it has not finally entered the top three. He hasn’t even made it to the podium.
Benzema’s messages
The French forward was cautious on Twitter: “Thanks to all who support me, I play soccer for you and the show must go on“But it was something more forceful on Instagram, where he shared several messages, two of them revealing. One of them is from his partner Lunin, who crossed out the France Football poster with the 4 (from the fourth position) and wrote a 1. The other, from the user ‘champagneeppapi’ and the phrase “Game for people who know about soccer“.
A Benzema titles fail him
Undoubtedly, Benzema has been harmed by the lack of collective titles with Real Madrid. His individual performance has been stupendous: He ended the 2020-21 season with Madrid with 30 goals and 9 assists, and this season he already has 16 goals and eight assists. And to this he adds his return with France, with which he was the best player of his team in the Eurocup (four goals) and also the main architect for France to win the League of Nations against Spain.
But Jorginho, much less prominent on an individual level, has benefited from the collective successes of Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea., which won the Champions League, and Mancini’s Italy, which was proclaimed champion of Europe. In both cases, Jorginho had a prominent role, which has led him to finish third. Benzema didn’t even get close to the podium: he received a total of 239 points, while Jorginho took 460.
