Real Madrid: Where does Karim Benzema rank amongst the Ballon d’Or favourites?
The Ballon d’Or is just around the corner, as the award will be presented to the new winner in Paris by France Football on November 29th. The previous edition was cancelled out due to COVID-19. Recently, France Football officially released the 30-man shortlist for the world’s most prestigious individual award.
From Real Madrid, Luka Modric and Karim Benzema have been shortlisted but quite surprisingly the judge’s panel excluded Toni Kroos from the 30-man shortlist. This omission has raised an eyebrow or two on what basis are players nominated.
Unlike the previous editions which were always dominated by Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi who have won it a combined 11 times. The 2021 Ballon d’Or by France Football is arguably the most contested edition in recent times.
In my opinion, there are five clear candidates for the award: Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich), Lionel Messi (Barcelona/Paris Saint-Germain), Jorginho ( Chelsea), Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus/Manchester United) and Karim Benzema (Real Madrid).
These five players are going to battle it out for the 2021 Ballon d’Or, so where exactly does Benzema rank amongst the other four competitors and does he have a real chance at winning his first-ever Golden Ball? Let’s get right into it by having a look at the possible rankings.
5. CRISTIANO RONALDO- JUVENTUS/ MANCHESTER UNITED
Cristiano Ronaldo had a brilliant individual campaign with Juventus last season scoring 36 goals and providing four assists in all competitions. He finished his final season with the Bianconeri as the top scorer of the club while also winning the Capocannoniere award for scoring the most goals in Seria.
Collectively Juventus failed as a team on the big stage by losing the Serie A to Inter after nine years of dominance and were sent crashing out of the UEFA Champions League to Porto. Andrea Pirlo’s team still managed to win two trophies despite all their problems after bagging the Coppa Italia and Italian Super Cup.
To further build Ronaldo’s case, the former Real Madrid forward performed exceptionally in the Euro 2020 with Portugal, scoring five goals and winning the top scorer award. He’s also broken tons of records by becoming the all-time top scorer in the history of football ( surpassing Pele), all-time top scorer in the Euro’s, all-time top scorer in international football ( surpassing Ali Daei).
While Cristiano Ronaldo has achieved a lot at the age of 36, he’s still far from being a favourite to win the Ballon d’Or this year when compared to the other competitors for the award. It looks like Ronaldo’s wait for his sixth Ballon d’Or continues after winning his last in 2017 while at Real Madrid.