Full Ballon d’Or 2022 rankings as Karim Benzema beats Sadio Mane to 2022 award
For the first time in his career, Karim Benzema defeated Sadio Mane to win the Ballon d’Or in 2022.
The French striker was the overwhelming favorite to win the coveted award, having led Real Madrid to Champions League glory at the expense of Mane’s now-former club, Liverpool.
Footballing superstars dominated the race, with Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne and Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski finishing third and fourth, respectively.
Mohamed Salah, the current Liverpool sensation, made the top five, beating out Paris Saint-Kylian Germain’s Mbappe, who could be playing for another club if he gets his way in the January transfer window.
Thibaut Courtois was seventh, and he also won the Yashin Trophy for best goalkeeper after helping Real Madrid become European champions for the 14th time in their illustrious history in June.
Vicious Junior and Luka Modric, two more Los Blancos heroes, finished eighth and ninth, respectively.
And Manchester City striker Erling Haaland made it into the top 10 thanks to his heroics for Borussia Dortmund during the 2020-21 season, which was the basis for the voting.
As a result, previous winner Lionel Messi was not even nominated, and Cristiano Ronaldo came in 20th place.
And, of course, Benzema was a deserving winner, receiving the award on Monday evening at the Théâtre du Chatelet in Paris from fellow Frenchman and Real Madrid legend Zinedine Zidane.
Benzema said after receiving the award for the first time in his trophy-laden career: “To see this prize in front me makes me really proud.
“When I was small, all the work I did, I never gave up. It was a childhood dream and I had the motivation. I had role models in my life – Zidane and Ronaldo [Nazario]. I always had this dream in my mind that anything is possible. There were difficult periods where I wasn’t in the French team but I never stopped working hard, I never gave up. I always kept in my head the joy of playing football.”
2022 Ballon d’Or rankings in full
=25.D arwin Nunez (Liverpool and Uruguay)
=25. Christopher Nkunku (RB Leipzig and France)
=25. Joao Cancelo (Manchester City and Portugal)
=25. Antonio Rudiger (Real Madrid and Germany)
=25. Mike Maignan (AC Milan and France)
=25. Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich and Germany)
=22. Bernardo Silva (Manchester City and Portugal)
=22. Phil Foden (Manchester City and England)
=22. Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool and England)
21. Harry Kane ( Tottenham and England)
20. Cristiano Ronaldo ( Manchester United and Portugal)
=17. Luis Diaz (Liverpool and Colombia)
=17. Casemiro (Manchester United and Brazil)
16. Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool and Netherlands)
=14. Rafael Leao (AC Milan and Portugal)
=14. Fabinho (Liverpool and Brazil)
13. Sebastien Haller (Borussia Dortmund and Ivory Coast)
12. Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City and Algeria)
11. Son Heung-min (Tottenham and South Korea)
10. Erling Haaland (Manchester City and Norway)
9. Luka Modric (Real Madrid and Croatia)
8. Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid and Brazil)
7. Thibaut Courtis (Real Madrid and Belgium)
6. Kylian Mbappe (PSG and France)
5. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool and Egypt)
4. Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich and Poland)
3. Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City and Belgium)
2. Sadio Mane (Liverpool and Senegal)
1. Karim Benzema (Real Madrid and France)
Full Ballon d’Or 2022 rankings as Karim Benzema beats Sadio Mane to 2022 award
