Though football is highly dependent on the team game, personal performance is also a very crucial point for this sport. Many annual football awards are running to determine the best footballer, but the Ballon d’Or is considered the most reputed among those.
France Football magazine organizes the Ballon d’Or every year to elect the best footballer of the year, based on voting by selected football journalists from FIFA’s national associations. Ballon d’Or 2022 is going to be different from previous ceremonies because now it will be awarded based on the performances over a regular European season. Previously, that was awarded based on the performances over a calendar year.
A footballer’s performances for his club and his nation both have been taken into consideration during the Ballon d’Or award.
Ballon d’Or 2022: Karim Benzema is just unstoppable
French forward Karim Benzema is currently in outstanding form. The Real Madrid superstar is not only dominating the Spanish La Liga 2021/22, but he is also mastering the UEFA Champions League 2021/22. While Benzema has scored 26 goals in the ongoing La Liga season, he has also scored 14 goals in this UCL season, and he is on top in both of these tournaments’ goal-scorers stats. He has already scored a total of 42 goals this season. Also, he has 13 assists to his name in this ongoing season.
Moreover, the French striker has also scored five goals for his national team since last October. So, there is no doubt why Benzema is a huge favourite to win the Ballon d’Or 2022. He has played vital roles for his teams to achieve recent successes as Real Madrid have secured the La Liga 2021/22 trophy and has also competed in the semi-final of the ongoing UCL season.
However, Benzema will face some very tough competition in the battle of Ballon d’Or 2022 as Robert Lewandowski, Kylian Mbappe and Mohamed Salah are also in great form.
Players with the most goals for European clubs in the 2021/22 season (Top 10)
Ballon d’Or 2022: Mohamed Salah also has a very strong chance
According to me, Liverpool superstar Mohamed Salah is going to be the toughest competitor of Benzema in the battle of Ballon d’Or 2022. The Egyptian forward has already scored 30 goals for Liverpool this season along with 14 assists.
Salah’s Liverpool are strongly fighting against Manchester City in the title battle of Premier League 2021/22. On the other hand, Liverpool are in a better position than Real Madrid in the ongoing UCL season as The Reds have a winning advantage after their respective first legs of the semi-finals of this tournament.
Salah is leading both the lists of goals and assists in the ongoing Premier League season. In the meantime, he is in the fourth position in the list of most goals in the UCL 2021/22.
Also, Salah played a huge role for his national team Egypt to finish runners-up in the Africa Cup of Nations 2021. He had two goals and one assist in that competition as he was selected in the official Best XI of that tournament.
Though Salah is well behind Benzema in the fight of scoring goals in the ongoing season, the Premier League is always considered one of the toughest leagues in Europe.
I believe that the UCL 2021/22 results can play a major decisive role in the Ballon d’Or 2022. In the Ballon d’Or 2022 competition, though we are not forgetting other players in different positions, Benzema and Salah are too strong to beat.
