Ballon d'Or 2022: France and Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema has won the prestigious Ballon dÓr for the first time after leading Real Madrid to their 14th Champions League title
n a sudden turn of events, seven-time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi was left out of the final 30-man list of nominees on Friday.
Benzema scored 44 goals in 46 matches with his club this season, and equalled Madrid great Raul Gonzalez as the club’s second-highest scorer with 323 goals.
Alexia Putellas became the third winner of the women's award for an outstanding season with Barcelona and Spain.
The esteemed line-up also includes Brazil's three-time World Cup winner Pele and legendary Argentinian Diego Maradona, who died last month of a heart-attack.
Robert Lewandowski has done everything to win the prestigious Ballon d'Or trophy this season, but in the end, he is robbed by the French Football Magazine who decided to cancel the award ceremony for the first time since 1956.
Awarded by France Football magazine, the Ballon d’Or has been given out every year since Stanley Matthews won the first one in 1956.
Messi became the first player to win six Ballon d'Or, however, he feels that it is a "shame" that Liverpool forward Sadio Mane did not finish higher than fourth in the rankings.
Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi won a record sixth Ballon d'Or trophy after a stellar season with the Catalan giants.
Ballon d'Or 2019 award ceremony is less than a week away and the name of the winner is already revealed.
Neymar's absence from the list of 30 Ballon d'Or candidates was explained Tuesday by France Football magazine which organizes the prestigious award.
Messi and Ronaldo's 10-year grip on the individual award organized by France Football magazine was broken by Luka Modric last December.
When the long list of 30 candidates was announced Monday in Paris, Neymar's name was missing from the nominations.
Hegerberg said Solveig also apologized to her personally, even though "I wasn't upset."
Messi and Ronaldo had won every Ballon d'Or since 2008, and usually fought only each other for the greatest recognition among soccer's elite.
The last player to win the trophy before Ronaldo and Messi took over was Kaka in 2007.
Mbappe won the best young player award at the World Cup in Russia after becoming the first teenager to score in a final since Pele in 1958, delivered his most efficient display since joining PSG against Lyon.
A graceful midfielder, Kaka won 92 caps for Brazil, scoring 29 goals and featuring at three World Cups.
Munich: Bayern Munich winger Franck Ribery has blasted the Ballon d'Or process, saying FIFA's top individual award is "purely political."Ribery watched his teammate Manuel Neuer finish third in the ceremony earlier this month, the same
Barcelona: Dutch football legend Johan Cruyff has described Cristiano Ronaldo's two back-to-back Ballon d'Or awards as "absurd".The former Barcelona star argued that Real Madrid's Portuguese striker did not perform well in the Brazil FIFA 2014
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