Benzema’s Ballon d’Or the Crowning Achievement of a Glorious Career
For all the surprises football gives us each day on and off the field, everyone knew there would be nothing of the sort when the 2022 Ballon d’Or was handed out on Monday, October 17.
Karim Benzema had the trophy wrapped up months ago, as he had been the unquestioned best player in the world last season, no matter how you measure it. Do you prefer to look at trophies and stats? How about 51 goals and 15 assists for club and country while leading Real Madrid to a La Liga title, the Spanish Supercup, and the UEFA Champions League, not to mention a Nations League triumph with France.
What did he do in big moments? How about the 10 goals in UCL knockout play, including two hat tricks, two goals in two Supercup games, a goal in the Nations League final, and so many crucial strikes for Madrid in La Liga. Maybe, just maybe, you say forget the stats and judge players solely on the eye test. Fair enough, take a few minutes to look at some of the unreal goals he scored in the past year, and you will see just how easy he makes the most difficult parts of football look.
In a year where Benzema was so undisputed as the world’s best, why is it that this ascendancy over the past few seasons to the upper tier of elite players seems to have come as a surprise to many?
Well, for the entirety of Benzema’s career in Madrid until 2018, he was overshadowed by Cristiano Ronaldo, who arrived with him in the summer of 2009. There were no arguments that Benzema should be taking the spotlight from Ronaldo during those years, but when the two of them formed the dangerous attacking trident dubbed “BBC” while Gareth Bale in 2014, it was clear Benzema was the third option.
He had to sacrifice for the greater good of the team and become a player who would link the bigger egos together, putting himself in a position where jaw-dropping stats would be hard to come by. He won four Champions Leagues doing this, though, all the while not getting quite the recognition he deserved.
Ronaldo and Benzema in 2009, their first year with the club.
When the Frenchman did put up numbers during this era, such as his 24-goal, eight-assist La Liga campaign in 2015/16, no one would even notice as Ronaldo strutted to a 35-goal, 11-assist season. On the contrary, there were years when the goals for Benzema didn’t flow, such as 2017/18, when he scored just five in the league but produced 11 assists. The lazy narrative at the time was that Benzema had fallen off, and Madrid needed a new striker. All the while, no other players in the world could make that team tick as he did.
Naturally, when Ronaldo left, Benzema took a larger role and has scored 20 or more league goals each year since then. As a club, Madrid leaned on him as they transitioned from one era to another. It was Benzema who, alongside Sergio Ramos, dragged Madrid to the league title in 2019/20. But nothing can compare to the show he put on in 2021/22, when the rest of the forward options, Vinicius, Rodrygo, and Marco Asensio, had matured enough to consistently aid the evergreen midfield duo of Luka Modric and Toni Kroos in chance creation.
With a full unit around him and a team set up to succeed through him, Benzema thrived like never before at age 34. It truly makes one imagine just how many goals would he have scored if things were always like this? Maybe there would have been more individual success, but I assure you that is the least of the big Frenchman’s worries.
His five Champions Leagues and four La Liga titles speak for themselves, and none of it would have been possible without his unappreciated selflessness. Now, he can prop his Ballon d’Or next to those winners’ medals, and for once, he receives a crowning achievement recognizing his individual greatness.