In Paris, France, at the Théâtre du Châtelet, there was a presentation of the 2022 Ballon d’Or.
Karim Benzema, a striker for Real Madrid, received the Ballon d’Or award on Monday during a ceremony in Paris. His outstanding achievements throughout the previous season helped Real Madrid win the Champions League and La Liga.
In 46 appearances for his club, including 15 in the Champions League, Benzema scored 44 goals, making him the first Frenchman to win the sport’s most illustrious individual award since Zinedine Zidane in 1998.
For the second consecutive year, Spain’s Alexia Putellas took home the women’s Ballon d’Or on Monday. She earned the honor following a campaign in which she led all scorers while her side Barcelona advanced to the Champions League final.
After a season in which Barcelona also won the domestic league and cup, the 28-year-old Putellas triumphed over the fierce competition, most notably from three stars of the England side that won the European Championship.
The honor, given at a glamorous ceremony at the Chatelet Theatre in the heart of Paris, is a consolation for Putellas, who is still recovering from a major knee injury.
Her inability to play this season is due to the injury, which caused her to miss the July Euro in England.
Putellas claimed that even though she was aggravated by being hurt, he was overjoyed to be there.
It is considerably harder to keep the trophy. She believed her hopes of winning were over after he hurt her knee, but the jury ultimately decided based on the entire season prior, which she only missed by one month.
When champions Barcelona advanced to the final but fell to Lyon, Putellas scored 11 goals in the Champions League that year.
Ada Hegerberg of Norway won the inaugural Ballon d’Or in 2018, and American starlet Megan Rapinoe took her place in 2019. This is the first time a women’s Ballon d’Or has been given.
The Gerd Mueller Trophy, which was given to Robert Lewandowski on Monday during the Ballon d’Or ceremony, is now given to the player who scored the most goals during the previous season.
The 34-year-old scored 57 goals in 56 games for the club and his country last season after joining Barcelona from Bayern Munich in the offseason.
With 35 goals, he led the Bundesliga in scoring.
The Yachine Award for 2022 went to Real Madrid’s Thibaut Courtois, while the Kopa Award went to Gavi of FC Barcelona. Manchester City received the Club of the Year Award.
