OPINION

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By Nisah Allauddin

“With great pleasure I am here to announce that the winner of the Ballon D’Or 2022 is Karim Benzema,” – Real Madrid president Florentine Perez on October 17.

Karim Benzema receiving the Ballon D’Or. Photo credit: Aljazeera Network.

Frenchman Karim Benzema, who plays soccer for Real Madrid, received the Ballon D’Or this fall, deeming him the best player over the last year. However, I believe that Senegalese player Sadio Mané, who plays for Bayern Munich and got second place for the award, is a more talented player. One poll shows that a majority of soccer fans think that Benzema is the best player of 2022. While the two are incredible, Benzema did deserve to win the Ballon D’Or, because he showed the greatest amount of improvement in this past year. 

The Ballon D’Or is the most prestigious award an individual can receive in soccer. The annual award recognizes the best player that year, and there are separate awards for men and women. The Ballon D’Or was created by Gabriel Hanot and Jacques Ferran in 1956. Hanot was a French soccer player and journalist who also helped to found the Champions League. Ferran was a journalist and a part-time actor. The prize does not give the recipient prize money, but the winner of the award receives offers to sponsor different companies. The award has been given to some of the greatest soccer players, such as Argentinian Lionel Messi, who has won seven Ballon D’Ors.

In the past year, Benzema, 34, has shown impressive stats. He scored 44 goals for Real Madrid, 27 of which were in La Liga, the Spanish League, making him the league’s top scorer. Benzema also scored six goals for France’s national team; despite this, Polish player Robert Lewandowski still beat him in scoring eight goals in international play.

The beginning of everyone’s attention on Benzema began when he scored a hat trick, or three goals during a match, against Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) on March 9 at Bernabéu Stadium. I was fortunate to be in Madrid at the time. I had the pleasure of seeing the excitement of the people in Madrid, being only five kilometers away from the stadium. PSG fans were enraged; my mother and I witnessed a few men throwing tables into the streets, and Madrid fans screaming with joy.

In the match against PSG, Benzema was determined, and he stayed determined when he scored another hat trick against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on April 6 and set Real Madrid up for semi-finals of the Champions League. Playing for Real Madrid and the French national team, Benzema helped his teams win La Liga, the Champions League, and the Nations League.

Sadio Mané playing with Bayern Munich for the first time. Photo credit: The Indian Express.

Mané has been a consistently exceptional player for years. At the age of 30, Mané played for Liverpool for six years before making his debut for FC Bayern Munich this past June, which I got to see live. This match took place in Audi Field in Washington, DC, and Mané scored a penalty kick. This past year, Mané scored 26 goals, finished second in the Premier League, and won second in the Champions League, losing to Benzema.

Mané’s greatest accomplishment was receiving the African Cup of Nations Award for his national team, Senegal, in which he beat Mohamad Salah’s Egyptian team. Salah played alongside Mané for five years in Liverpool and is still currently playing for them. He also scored the winning penalty for Senegal against Egypt in the African Cup of Nations. Mané continuously got his spotlight taken away from him in Liverpool, and instead Salah received fame. Despite Salah being my favorite player, he has repeatedly missed shots and opportunities, and his performance on the field has decreased rather quickly. Mané has continuously shown effort and racked up many assists for Liverpool. In the past six years, Mané has scored 120 goals and 38 assists for Liverpool, making him have a significant impact on the team.

Michael Karjavine (‘24) is a member of Collegiate’s varsity boys soccer team and a passionate soccer fan. In his opinion, Benzema deserved to win, and it was obvious because “Benzema was the main star in Real Madrid and at Liverpool. Mané was in the shadow of Salah. In the eyes of the fans in the Premier League, Salah is Liverpool.” With all the attention on Salah, it is hard for Mané to stand out in his team. Karjavine also argues that neither of the players were particularly outstanding. He claims Mané and Benzema are each good at playing their positions—Benzema as striker, and Mané as left winger—but the reason Benzema stood out was because his goals and assists happened at crucial moments that left an impact.

Former player for Manchester City and Barcelona Yaya Touré thinks that Mané should have won the Ballon D’Or. Touré believes that Mané is the greatest player in Africa, and the 26 goals he scored with Liverpool this past year should have made him win the Ballon D’Or. Touré said, “For me, it is a shame when a team wins this trophy [the Champions League] and the winner of the Ballon d’Or is not coming from there.” Toure’s perspective is particularly interesting, because Liverpool finished second in the Champions League, with the help of Mané, and Real Madrid placed first with the help of Benzema, so the winner of the Ballon D’Or did come from the winners of the Champions League, as he prefers. Even though Toure’s thinking is confusing, his logic clarifies why Mané could not have gotten first in the Ballon D’Or. Benzema deserved it, having won the Champions League Final. After watching the final, I was enraged and disappointed because I realized that Benzema was going to win the Ballon D’Or then. I think that by Benzema winning the Champions League, it guaranteed him the Ballon D’Or. 

My brother Taha Allauddin (‘27) an 8th Grader at Collegiate, thinks that Benzema deserved to win the Ballon D’Or, despite also disliking him. Allauddin thinks Benzema deserved to win because “He was top scorer in the Champions League, won the Champions League, and he won La Liga.” Benzema and Mané scored many goals, but Benzema managed to score his goals in significant moments. For example, he scored a goal against PSG in the last three minutes in their game on March 9. Allauddin said, “Madrid showed off in every game they could, practically swept the other teams of their feet.” Madrid was extremely successful this past year, so naturally Benzema was uplifted by his team’s success.

Featured image credit: flickr user figo.