Real Madrid manipulate Ballon d'Or to their own ends claims France Football chief
Karan Tejwani
- 15 Oct 2022 10:20 CDT
- 3 min read
The 2022 Ballon d’Or is set to be awarded on Monday, as votes are set to be rounded up to crown the best footballer in the world for the past year.
Karim Benzema is set to be named the best male footballer in the world after a glorious year where he had an instrumental role in helping Real Madrid win La Liga and the Champions League.
The French forward put up career best numbers last season, netting 44 goals across all competitions and netting in Champions League knockout ties against Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Manchester City.
Now, according to France Football chief Pascal Ferre, Real Madrid do the most to ensure their players win football’s top individual award.
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France Football are the publication that have always awarded the Ballon d’Or, working with European journalists and coaches and captains from all football associations to name the winner of the award every year.
Real Madrid are the club that have hosted the most Ballon d’Or winners, having seven different players win it on 11 separate occasions while playing for them, one more than Barcelona.
Yep, of course. ❄️
Of course Benzema delivered a panenka in a Champions League semi-final 😵
This game really has it all! It's now 4-3! #UCL pic.twitter.com/TMkdfmveuC— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) April 26, 2022
Barcelona, though, have the most wins, with 12 wins by six different players, most of which came from Lionel Messi during his glorious tenure at the club.
“Florentino Perez orchestrates the campaigns well,” Ferre told the EFE Agency. “There are machines like Real Madrid that are very strong. Their intelligence is that they support a single player.
“For years it was Cristiano Ronaldo and now it’s Karim Benzema. That prevents the votes from being dispersed. They know how this works. It’s no coincidence if it’s the club that has won it the most times.”
Along with Benzema and Ronaldo, midfielder Luka Modric won the award in 2018 after a starring year with the club and his country Croatia, who were World Cup runners-up that year.
