The Ballon d’Or is the most prestigious individual award in world football and the nominees for the 2022 edition have been announced. This year’s gala will be held on October 17th and Karim Benzema leads the list of 30 candidates, as 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, which was when Benzema stood out for his performances.
However, the striker isn’t the only Real Madrid or LaLiga 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, Vinicius, Casemiro, Luka Modric and Antonio Rudiger. Robert Lewandowski, FC Barcelona’s new 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 of their triumph. That was the case with Ronaldo Nazario (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 Modric (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 Bernabeu in a couple of months’ time.
Promoted
The full list of nominees for the 2022 Ballon d’Or:
Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid)
Rafael Leao (Milan)
Christopher Nkunku (RB Leipzig)
Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)
Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich)
Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool)
Robert Lewandowski (FC Barcelona)
Bernardo Silva (Manchester City )
Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid)
Luis Diaz (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 Nunez (Liverpool)
Mike Maignan (Milan)
Sebastien Haller (Borussia Dortmund)
Luka Modric (Real Madrid)
Antonio Rudiger (Real Madrid)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)
Joao Cancelo (Manchester City)
Erling Haaland (Manchester City )
Kylian Mbappé (Paris Saint-Germain)
Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool )
Dusan Vlahovic (Juventus)
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