Karim Benzema become one of the main stars of success Real Madrid won three trophies this season, including in the Champions League. The French striker is believed to have no rival to win the Ballon d’Or trophy this season.
Benzema is the favorite to win the 2022 Ballon d’Or, especially considering his performances this season. He led Madrid to win La Liga, the Champions League and the Spanish Super Cup. In these three events, he also managed to become the top scorer.
In total, Benzema scored 44 goals and 12 assists in all competitions. Benzema’s collective and individual achievements became an advantage for him to win the first Ballon d’Or of his career.
Former Manchester United player who is now a pundit, Rio Ferdinand assesses the Ballon d’Or belonging to Benzema is an absolute thing. He would be surprised if the opposite happened.
“The argument about the Ballon d’Or is over. If Benzema doesn’t win it will be a parody,” Ferdinand told BT Sport.
Actually, starting this year, the event held by France Football changed a number of assessment criteria to determine the best players. First, the scoring is calculated from August 2021 to July 2022, or one full season.
Second, voting will be focused on individual player achievements, not collectively as a team. That means the number of goals, assists or saves of a goalkeeper is also very decisive. In addition, there are aspects of fair play that are included.
Third, France Football will also cut the number of voters. For journalists, only those from the top 100 FIFA country rankings for the men’s category and the world’s top 50 for the women’s category will be included.
Seeing the new scoring method, Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich) also has a chance, even though he has only won the German League this season. He finished the season with 50 goals in 46 games.
In addition, the Polish striker also returned to being the Bundesliga’s top scorer for the fifth time in a row with a score of 35 goals, and won the second European golden boot in his career in a row.
Not only forwards, Thibaut Courtois also has a similar opportunity. The Belgian goalkeeper has also become an important actor for Madrid in winning LaLiga and the Champions League this season. Especially in the last event, he was able to make 59 saves in 13 appearances.
(adp/krs)
