From Madrid to London, from Italy to Brazil, figures of the round ball and sports media applauded the consecration of the Madrid striker Monday evening in Paris, where the Spaniard Alexia Putellas (FC Barcelona) for her part kept the Ballon d’ Women’s gold for the second consecutive year.
“You are examples that will inspire future generations who love football. Thank you for the show,” Brazilian legend Pelé wrote on his Instagram account.
In France, France coach Didier Deschamps hailed Benzema’s “supreme reward”: “It’s a great moment for him, for those close to him and that he’s a Frenchman, it’s one more victory for French football,” said the boss of the Blues.
But it is obviously in Spain, where Benzema (34) and Putellas (28) play, that the superlatives are the most resounding.
“Bain d’Or”, title on the front page of the sports daily As, while its competitor Marca places the two winners on the front page with this headline summarizing the general agreement: “De justice et d’or”.
“Eternal Benzema”, complete on the inside pages of Marca, the most widely read daily in Spain. “Karim Benzema has finally received the reward he so longed for and which came when it was most difficult, after 14 years at Real”.
– “Do not stay on failures” –
Because the time is not so long ago when Benzema was criticized in France for his extra-sporting troubles (“Zahia” affair and “sextape” affair) and exhausted in Spain for his supposed inability to be a worthy N.9 at Real , namely an insatiable goalscorer.
The person concerned never stopped at these considerations, carried by a rare character at this level, despite the heartbreak of his sidelining of the France team until his return to grace in 2021.
“We must not stay on failures,” he told AFP after his trophy. “You keep them, you think about them, but that’s mental toughness to me, not remorse.”
It’s because the striker from Bron, in the Lyon suburbs, has always conceived of football as a collective game and has long put himself at the service of others, in particular Cristiano Ronaldo, five times Ballon d’Or.
Moreover, once rid of the shady Portuguese in 2018, “KB9” began to give its full potential, until the apotheosis of its 2021-2022 season, with 44 goals in 46 club matches and a fifth coronation in the Champions League.
– World Cup goal –
“Once Cristiano left (…), he took responsibility for the goals and the leadership”, summarizes for As the editorialist Alfredo Relaño, Spanish juror of the Ballon d’Or. “It’s a curious story of maturity for an outsized player who seemed indolent in his early years.”
Returning to Madrid late at night, Benzema was present at Real’s training session on Tuesday morning at 11:00 a.m. He was welcomed to the applause of his teammates, and he and Thibaut Courtois, crowned best goalkeeper of the season, presented their trophies for a small photo before the session.
Mischievous, his coach Carlo Ancelotti has already invited Benzema to turn to the 2023 trophy: “He already has to think about the next Ballon d’Or. And he can start scoring points tomorrow (Wednesday, Editor’s note)” against Elche, he said.
But for the center-forward of the Blues, the big meeting will be above all the World Cup in Qatar (November 20-December 18), four years after missing the French coronation in Russia.
“I’ve seen you work a lot to make your game progress and become what you are. You’ve always tried to improve yourself,” Zinédine Zidane, Benzema’s former coach and mentor at Real, congratulated him on Tuesday. his Instagram account.
“I hope you will continue to delight us at Real and during this World Cup with the France team,” launched the 1998 Ballon d’Or, who presented the trophy to his French successor on the list on Monday.
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