Real Madrid and France Striker Karim Benzema has won the 2022 men’s Ballon d’Or at a ceremony held in Paris on Monday evening.
Benzema finished ahead of Senegal star Sadio Mane, Kevin De Bruyne and Robert Lewandowski. The 34-year-old becomes just the second player outside of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to be awarded the prize in the past 15 years.
He follows in the footsteps of his Real Madrid team-mate Luka Modric who won it in 2018.
KARIM BENZEMA’S SEASON
He managed 44 goals in 46 matches last season as Real won the Champions League, another LaLiga title along with the Spanish and European Super Cups.
Benzema becomes the first French winner of the Ballon D’Or since Zinedine Zidane – who presented him the award – in 1998. The striker is also the oldest Ballon D’Or winner since Stanley Matthews won the first edition of the prize in 1956.
“It makes me really proud,” said Benzema.
“All the work I did, I never gave up. It was a childhood dream like all kids, the motivation. I had two motivations in my life, Zidane and Ronaldo. I’ve always had this dream in my mind that anything is possible,” he said upon collecting the award.
THE FULL MEN’S BALLON D’OR AWARD RANKINGS
1st – Karim Benzema (Real Madrid and France)
2nd – Sadio Mane (Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Senegal)
3rd – Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City and Belgium)
4th – Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Poland)
5th – Mohamed Salah (Liverpool and Egypt)
6th – Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain and France)
7th – Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid and Belgium)
8th – Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid and Brazil)
9th – Luka Modric (Real Madrid and Croatia)
10th – Erling Haaland (Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City and Norway)
11th – Heung-Min Son (Tottenham and South Korea)
12th – Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City and Algeria)
13th – Sebastian Haller (Ajax, Borussia Dortmund and Ivory Coast)
Joint 14th – Fabinho (Liverpool and Brazil), Rafael Leao (AC Milan and Portugal)
16th – Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool and Netherlands)
Joint 17th – Luis Diaz (FC Porto, Liverpool, and Colombia), Casemiro (Real Madrid, Manchester United and Brazil), Dusan Vlahovic (Fiorentina, Juventus and Serbia)
20th – Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United and Portugal)
Joint 22nd – Bernardo Silva (Manchester City and Portugal), Phil Foden (Manchester City and England), Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool and England)
Joint 25th – Darwin Nunez (Benfica, Liverpool and Uruguay), Christopher Nkunku (RB Leipzig and France), Joao Cancelo (Manchester City and Portugal), Mike Maignan (AC Milan and France), Antonio Rudiger (Chelsea, Real Madrid and Germany), Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich and Germany)
OTHER WINNERS
Sadio Mane received the Socrates Award in recognition of his charity work in his native Senegal.
Barcelona captain Alexia Putellas became the first two-time winner of the Ballon d’Or Feminin after taking back-to-back awards. England and Arsenal forward Beth Mead, who was the top scorer at Euro 2020, finished second, ahead of the Chelsea striker Sam Kerr.
Barcelona midfielder Gavi won the Kopa Trophy for best young player while Thibaut Courtois won the Yashin Trophy for best goalkeeper.
