Real Madrid: Karim Benzema’s Ballon d’Or winning points revealed

Following Sunday’s El Clasico, Karim Benzema headed to Paris for the Ballon d’Or event, where he received the prize he had hoped for since he was a child. After a magnificent world-class season with Real Madrid, there was no one else who could win the Ballon d’Or.

The event, however, was unpleasant to some extent and was vulnerable to questioning when the likes of Vinicius Jr, Luka Modric, and Thibaut Courtois were badly undervalued in the ratings and Real Madrid was referred to as the third best club after winning nearly everything last season.

Nevertheless, the Ballon d’Or is still regarded a top achievement for the finest footballers in the world, and Benzema won it with popular support. He practically had nobody to contend with as he collected the award.

Real Madrid star won the Ballon d’Or by the second-biggest margin in history

Though it was widely assumed that Benzema would win the title for best player, the margin by which the Frenchman would win was a source of great discussion, interest, and curiosity.

It was ultimately disclosed in a report by Marca that Benzema won the Ballon d’Or with the second largest margin of points in the award’s history, the first being Cristiano Ronaldo in 2016. Benzema finished with 549 points, 356 more than Sadio Mane in second place.

In further voting-related revelations, it has come out that 89 of the 93 journalists from various nations across the world chose Benzema as their first option to win the Ballon d’Or.

The journalists from Egypt, Senegal, the Netherlands, and Slovenia were the only ones who did not choose the star as their first option. Their votes were cast for Mohamed Salah from Egypt, Sadio Mane from Senegal, Salah from the Netherlands, and Kevin De Bruyne from Slovenia. Surprisingly, the Slovenian journalist ranked Benzema the lowest at #3, with De Bruyne and Lewandowski ahead of the Frenchman.

In any case, the votes against Benzema were insufficient to overshadow his international popularity, as he easily and gloriously won the Ballon d’Or.