Karim Benzema - BIG Ballon d'Or 2022 campaign

Did you guys even watch EPL and Liverpool?  He was their best player very simply.  Salah was off most of the year frankly.

BdO is often about the best players on the top teams. City, Liverpool, PSG, Real Madrid, Bayern, etc. typically. So there should be no shock that players from these teams dominate the top 10.

I don't think I've witnessed a more unanimous Ballon D'or winner in my lifetime. Well deserved!

Interesting how most Madrid supporters will never utter their thoughts on Karim from 2013-18 that they held but fact is I too was in the train of heckling him as some parts of his career he was just plain ineffective and just a total joke off-field as well.

Somewhere though, he managed to turn it all around by weight loss, refining his game and turning into the constant big game player we know whom he is and quite frankly by far my favourite and most iconic Real Madrid player of this golden generation.

And to do so in his thirties and win at 34 (something no one has done) is nothing short of fantastic.

Why he has won me over not just due to the multi-facets to his game but his big game presence. Chad was right all along.

Best French striker of all time and Im willing to debate that with anyone.

I think the one who's really won the Balon d'or is Perez. He was like a little boy seeing his favourite pet toy win at the Balon d'or gala.

Perez went to his house to sign him. Withstood the widespread pressure to sign another n9 including Lewandowski. Mourinho went to war with him to get a replacement. People were chanting Morata's name everytime he touched the ball but Perez refused to buckle from the pressure and stood by Benzema. Fast forward he has been vindicated.

I was in the replace Benzema train ngl. Glad Perez stood firm.

You underestimate me Arq, I would gladly admit I was team Higuain and furthermore, gladly admit Benzema grew on me and as he did with the majority of the fan base. Like Hala, I too wanted him replaced as I did not like Benzema during those years. I really did not.

And you know what, that's fine as I do not run Madrid, thank God. Happy for him, he honestly grew into a far better footballer than I envisioned. Wish it was a bit earlier but everything for a reason.

Doc wrote:You underestimate me Arq, I would gladly admit I was team Higuain and furthermore, gladly admit Benzema grew on me and as he did with the majority of the fan base. Like Hala, I too wanted him replaced as I did not like Benzema during those years. I really did not.

And you know what, that's fine as I do not run Madrid, thank God. Happy for him, he honestly grew into a far better footballer than I envisioned. Wish it was a bit earlier but everything for a reason.

You're generally the Madrid-based exception here my friend.

Glad to hear someone come out about this as its refreshing. Neutral aside I too was in the Higuain boat back then.

Brilliant ending for Karim.

| Official: Out of them 93 journalists that voted for the Ballon d’Or, 89 of them voted Karim Benzema first. pic.twitter.com/wnIJDefOc3

— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) October 21, 2022

 

Senegal journalist: Mane
Egypt journalist: Salah
Netherlands journalist: Salah
Slovenia journalist: De Bruyne

— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) October 21, 2022

 

Petition to ban the muppets from Holland and Slovenia from voting for another Balon d'or

El Gunner wrote:i was team Higuain too before he showed his true colours when he failed Messi

Messi failed Messi

farfan wrote:

El Gunner wrote:i was team Higuain too before he showed his true colours when he failed Messi

Messi failed Messi

That's 1 WC and 2 Copa's missed.

None of these chances were created by Messi, and two were purely the result of Higuain's pressing or positioning. And where were Messi's goals btw? why is the supposed GOAT relying on/blaming some B level striker instead of making the difference himself? Didn't he also miss a one V one against Germany and a decisive penalty vs Chile?

Again, Messi failed Messi.

farfan wrote:None of these chances were created by Messi, and two were purely the result of Higuain's pressing or positioning. And where were Messi's goals btw? why is the supposed GOAT relying on/blaming some B level striker instead of making the difference himself? Didn't he also miss a one V one against Germany and a decisive penalty vs Chile?

Again, Messi failed Messi.

Messi helped to create two of the three chances, also helped to create the offside goal Higuain scored in WC final. Higuain is a striker, it's his job to score goals, he does nothing else.

Imagine Valdano or Burruchaga not scoring their chances in WC86 final, saying Maradona failed Maradona.

He didn't set up any of the goals in your gif. 2 defensive howlers and an inch perfect cross from another player. But again, since it's Messi you're obviously willing to stretch the definition of "chance creation".

Maradona averaged like 12-15 goals/season in Europe while Messi has an average of 40 per season throughout his career. They're very different players and It's not thar crazy to expect GOALS from one of the greatest goal scorers of all time

I'm looking at some of L'équipe's player ratings from these finals and it's exactly as I remember, Messi was the second worst attacking player after Higuain in almost all of them  Says it all when freaking Lavezzi had a better WC final than you.

Messi failed Messi, he and his fellow attacking flops failed the actual MVPs of Argentina's world cup (Bglia, Mascherano, Romero)

Higuain chance in WC final comes from Messi challenging the ball to defender mistake, in Copa he started the counter like from own half. The offside goal Messi also was the pre-assister, sucking a defender out of position. None of these again matter as Higuiain was a striker, who should score the chances presented to him.

I don't expect you change your opinion, no one ever does that on internet. It's one of the benefits, or downsides of anonymity.

Still at it farfan with the anti Messi bias, vs our biggest Messi fan, funny
Actually says the likes of Bglia having better WC than MEssi ROFLMAO~

Clutch wrote:I do find it weird that higuain gets this blame for missing a 1 v1 but no one talks about messi missing his 1 v 1 also

Messi fans tend to blame anyone else except Messi.

Clutch wrote:I do find it weird that higuain gets this blame for missing a 1 v1 but no one talks about messi missing his 1 v 1 also

To be fair the chances are completely different in terms of quality. Higuains was a sitter while Messi’s was fairly difficult.

Anyway, I do think it is reasonable to demand more of Messi in those finals. I don’t think he was bad, he did create many chances, but he definitely could have been better. The main context where I think it makes sense to bring up his teammates is when people bring up the ridiculous argument that he can’t be the GOAT without winning the WC. Then we can quite rightly point out that if Higuain had scored that sitter, Messi would be a WC winner.

farfan wrote:I'm looking at some of L'équipe's player ratings from these finals and it's exactly as I remember, Messi was the second worst attacking player after Higuain in almost all of them  Says it all when freaking Lavezzi had a better WC final than you.

Messi failed Messi, he and his fellow attacking flops failed the actual MVPs of Argentina's world cup (Bglia, Mascherano, Romero)

It's funny how people can have such different interpretations of the same event.

If you re-watched those 3 finals in full, you'd be doing mental gymnastics to convince yourself that Messi wasn't good in them.

None of these chances were created by Messi, and two were purely the result of Higuain's pressing or positioning. And where were Messi's goals btw? hmm why is the supposed GOAT relying on/blaming some B level striker instead of making the difference himself? Didn't he also miss a one V one against Germany and a decisive penalty vs Chile?

Clearly you don't understand team sports.
This isn't basketball.
Scoring goals isn't the only way to help your team win. When Messi gets heavily marked out of the game, especially from dangerous positions, he can still hurt you in other ways by finding the inch of open space with a dribble or with his playmaking. He did exactly what was expected of him if you understand sports.

Only simpletons think he was bad because he didn't score.

This is not basketball where you can hand him the ball like Michael Jordan and have him "make the difference himself" everytime by scoring a hattrick. Good teams in major finals aren't gonna let you do that.

And nitpicking the fact that Messi wasn't involved in those Higuain chances shows that you are missing the point entirely, that it's actually comical. Leo got ARG to those 3 finals with an array of complete performances.

It's actually astounding how good his international career has been, considering that ARG have been extremely poor (especially mentally) during most of it.
And the one time they weren't poor mentally (and didn't have Higuain lol), they won the trophy.


Also, I always noticed when ARG were playing like crap, and being weighed down by pressure, which was often, he almost always kept his level up with unbelievable playmaking and sparks of brilliance.
I recall multiple occasions where he was just beasting it while ARG team were crumbling under pressure, especially in those 3 finals where the pressure hits them the hardest.
I'm not saying there weren't situations that pressure didn't affect him too, but in general, his overall play was a cut above his teammates in those situations and the pressure didn't affect him - he did what he normally does.

And nitpicking the fact that Messi wasn't involved in those Higuain chances shows that you are missing the point entirely, that it's actually comical. Leo got ARG to those 3 finals with an array of complete performances. wrote:

What is the point? the only point we can deduce from this is that Messi didn't score nor did he create any of the dangerous chances in that final. The actual comedy is you thinking Messi got Argentina to that final when he was more or less the worst player on the pitch against the Netherlands This was pretty much your typical Messi performance in nut-cutting time:


*points out Messi's lack of goal-scoring in big games: Messi does more than just score!!
*points out that Messi hardly created any dangerous chances in the WC final or semis: You're nitpicking!!!

There are only two interpretations of those events: A reasonable one and a fanboy one. Reasonable observers saw a largely ineffective Messi who was easily marked out of these games and was more of a liability at times due to his poor defensive work rate. Fanboys, on the other hand, were reduced to counting dribbles and crediting Messi for chances because he made the pass that led to the pass that led to the pass that led to the chance...

farfan wrote:The actual comedy is you thinking Messi got Argentina to that final when he was more or less the worst player on the pitch against the Netherlands

Trolling now?

Oh I think we all agree that Messi won the Whoscored dribble championship that year. Meanwhile in the real world:

Calling some random french mumbo jumbo real world.

What a story arc for Karim. Used to be my favorite player back when I first became a fan in 2010. I remember Higuain was doing well and Karim was in the droll drums but then Higuain got injured before the 5-0 Barca game (Higuain's stock never was as high again probably as it was during those first few Mourinho months) and from then on Benzema slowly started to ascend. By 11/12 he was more of the starter and he had arguably his best season ever aside from the last few seasons. Then if I remember correctly 12/13 he was horrible, 13/14, 14/15 he was pretty to very good then I think for 15/16 and 16/17 there was a dip, 17/18 he wasn't too good and 18/19, 19/20/ 20/21, and 21/22 he grew from pretty good, to very good, to extraordinary.

He fulfilled his potential and after Modric and Valverde, he is probably my third favorite player ever now.

He probably would have been able to reach this point sooner, but that would require for so many things to click and change in his personal life and sporting life from what actually happened that talking about it all is just a waste of time.

Messi is the GOAT in my opinion, i can understand those who say it's Pele but there is nobody else in this debate

So it was expected from Messi to carry Argentina to a world cup title, no matter the excuses. I remember his terrible free kick to close the WC2014 instead of playing the header in the box he shot the ball on the moon. Perhaps it's the only stain on his CV and hopefully he erases it next month.