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Benzema poised to win Ballon d’Or after spectacular exploits with Real Madrid

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By Afolayan Adebiyi

Elegant on the ball. Classy on the move. Slippery in tackles. Fluid with his goals, Karim Benzema, the man of the moment in football, has navigated a tortuous course in his football career, before arriving at the podium level.
From the jibe of the acclaimed “Special One”, Jose Mourinho in 2012 about going hunting with a cat, to the many calls by the fan base of his team to offload in for his present rival, Robert Lewandowski or even Kun Aguero, to his rise with his selfless service for the “greatest goal scorer in the history of football”, Cristiano Ronaldo. He had transverses the whole course of the game and now deserves all the accolades he is getting now.

Benzema had spent the better part of thirteen years to build a profile that is now extremely difficult to ignore when the topic is football. He makes plays. He connects midfield with attack. He scores as he gives assists.

He once said in reference to his mousy game when playing with Christiano Ronaldo while at Real Madrid from 2009 – 2018: “when you have a guy that scores 50 goals a season by your side, you have to adapt your game to suit his own”.
Yet while he served as supplier to Ronaldo, he still was able to acquired spectacular numbers of his own. And once Ronaldo left after the Champions League’s triumph in Kiev in May 2018, he simply changed his gear. He took on job of the main goal scorer and even supplier. It was not until the last season that a certain Vinicius Jnr emerged to relieved him of much of the duties. He single-handedly carried his team, the Los Merengues to unbelievable highs.

Now France and Real Madrid striker,
Karim Benzema is the overwhelming favourite to win the 2022 men’s Ballon d’Or at a ceremony in Paris on Monday (17 October)
With this feat, he will become the first Frenchman to claim the most prestigious individual prize in football since Zinedine Zidane almost quarter of a century ago.

There are 30 nominees, but the Real Madrid striker is the outstanding candidate after his remarkable performances last season helped his club win the Champions League and LaLiga.
The data doesn’t lie – Karim Benzema’s impressive season last year definitely put him in contention to be the next Ballon d’Or winner.

As of right now, Karim Benzema is looking like the most likely candidate to win the Ballon d’Or, above Erling Haaland and Mo Salah, even his protege, Vinicius Jnr. Does he deserve it? Let’s take a look at the stats.

Benzema was involved in 52 goals (44 goals and 15 assists) in all competitions with Real Madrid in 2021/22, the best single-season performance of his career. The Frenchman scored 27 goals in LaLiga 2021/22, topping the scoring tally and winning his first Pichichi award. He scored 15 goals in the 2021/22 Champions League, his best record in a single season in the competition – a figure only reached or surpassed by Cristiano Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski. The Los Blancos number 9 scored 10 goals in the Champions League knockout stages last season, the joint-most by a player in a single campaign along with Cristiano Ronaldo in 2016/17. The Real Madrid captain scored a hat-trick in back-to-back Champions League appearances for the first time, becoming only the second player to do so in the knockout stages.
The Ballon d’Or 2022 will be awarded this Monday (October 17). This is the first year that the award will take into account the performance from the previous season rather than the calendar year, which is why it’s taking place much earlier.

Along with Benzema, the other top candidates are his attacking partner in Real Madrid, Vinicius Jnr, Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappé, Mohamed Salah, and Robert Lewandowski.

This may certainly be a landslide, and everyone knows it, with the 34-year-old Benzema set to claim his first Ballon d’Or on Monday.

The Real Madrid striker has been backed the world over, with his own team-mates, manager and president expecting the Frenchman to triumph, so too Lionel Messi, and it would be nothing short of a major shock if Benzema isn’t holding that golden ball.

In truth, what will be more interesting is just how many points Benzema will win with. With 100 journalists voting, and six points for their top pick, it does not seem wild to suggest he will be in the mid-500s – at least.

The Ballon d’Or is an annual football award presented by French news magazine France Football since 1956. Between 2010 and 2015, in an agreement with FIFA, the award was temporarily merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year and known as the FIFA Ballon d’Or
Monday’s Ballon d’Or presentation will be one of the most spectacular one’s EVER.

Seven ex-Ballon d’Or winners will be present on Monday.
Sandy Heribert, Ballon d’Or co-host said: “This is the first ceremony where there will be so many Ballon d’Or winners gathered in the same room.”
Also, in a statement from Director of France Football Pascal Ferré gave a pointer: “Real Madrid knows how to orchestrate campaigns to win Ballon d’Or.”

The organization also addressed Benzema’s past troubles with his teammates at the national team. “Benzema’s allegations from his past? I don’t think it’s an essential element. The Ballon d’Or is not the Nobel Peace Prize, they have voted for 11 months of competition.”

The president of his boyhood club,
Lyon FC, Aulas said, “Benzema deserves the Ballon D’Or. We’re preparing for it, because there’s a lot of requests from the media.”

While David Villa, a former Spanish national team player said: “Ballon D’Or? Karim Benzema deserves it.”
Benzema scored an astonishing 44 goals in 46 games for his club including 15 in the Champions League.

His exploits included a hat-trick in 17 second-half minutes against Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in the last 16, and another away to Chelsea in the quarterfinal first leg. He also scored three more goals over both legs of the semi-final against Manchester City.
Benzema was named the UEFA player of the year in August, and he is living a marvellous twilight to his career with the World Cup to come.

Formerly a pariah, frozen out of the France National Team for five and a half years, by Coach Deschamps over his involvement in a blackmail scandal over a sex tape involving teammate Mathieu Valbuena, Benzema has put all that behind him and is playing the best football of his career with his 35th birthday approaching the day after the World Cup final.

“What is most important to me is to win collective trophies. If you do things well on the field, individual awards will follow,” Benzema pointed out recently.

His victory at the Chatelet Theatre in the French capital seems an inevitability.

A direct rival, FC Barcelona striker, Robert Lewandowski this week, “If they don’t cancel it then he’s probably going to win this Ballon d’Or”.

That was a huge joke by the Pole, who would surely have been crowned in 2020 had that year’s award not been cancelled due to the pandemic.

NO MESSI

Normal service was restored last year when Lionel Messi won the Ballon d’Or for the seventh time, but he was not even nominated this time after a disappointing season at Paris Saint-Germain. Messi’s eternal rival,
Cristiano Ronaldo is nominated but there is no room for a Neymar on the list.
Benzema aside, there are four other members of Real’s Champions League-winning side on the 30-man list: new star on the block, Vinicius Jnr, the evergreen Luka Modric, goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and midfielder Casemiro, now of Manchester United.
Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, Lewandowski and Kevin De Bruyne feature too, but Benzema stands out by a distance.

If Benzema wins, he will be the fifth Frenchman to do so, following in the footsteps of Raymond Kopa in 1958, Michel Platini (1983, 1984, 1985), Jean-Pierre Papin (1991) and Zidane (1998).
The award was previously based on a player’s performances over the course of the calendar year. But the format has changed, with the prize now based on a player’s record over the last season.

PUTELLAS TO RETAIN WOMEN’S AWARD?

There is far less certainty about the identity of what will be the fourth women’s Ballon d’Or.
There are three members of England’s European Championship-winning squad short-listed among the 20 contenders.
Lucy Bronze and Millie Bright were both named but Arsenal striker Beth Mead is the most likely candidate after scoring six goals at the Euro.

Australia’s Sam Kerr and German duo Lena Oberdorf and Alexandra Popp may have a claim too, but it could also once again be Spain’s Alexia Putellas, who won last year.

The 28-year-old is currently recovering from a serious knee injury which saw her miss the Euro with Spain and means she is unlikely to play at all this season.
Putellas, who followed in the footsteps of Ada Hegerberg and Megan Rapinoe by winning a year ago, captained Barcelona to the Champions League final last season as well as a domestic league and cup double.

She was the Champions League top scorer with 11 goals, although her club lost the final to Lyon.

The winners will also receive digital tokens (NFTs) to go with their gleaming trophies, while organisers France Football magazine have also added a new humanitarian prize.
It is named for Socrates, the former Brazil midfielder who also held a medical degree.

The prize “will identify the best social initiative by committed champions,” France Football said.

www.focusmagazinesoline.com/www.afp.com (C2022)

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Barca Still Vulnerable in Europe, Xavi Admits

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FC Barcelona might be threading a familiar path in Europe with the latest result where they slumped to a 1-0 defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday (07 November).
With this result, they spurned the chance to seal an early qualification to the Round of 16 Champions League knock-out stages.

FC Barcelona have struggled miserably in Europe since they last lifted the trophy in 2015, only reaching the quarter-finals in two occasions.

Danylo Sikan’s dipping header in the 40th minute secured Shakhtar a famous victory as Xavi Hernandez’s flat Spanish champions failed to trouble their Ukrainian opponents.
Barcelona still lead Group H ahead of Porto, second, hosting Royal Antwerp later on, with the Portuguese side able to pull alongside the Catalans on nine points with victory.
“We can see we’re in a bit of a footballing rut, we have to do a reset,” said Barca coach Xavi.
“We played a bad game, we have to admit it.”
Xavi said his team had wasted a good chance to progress.

“After two years without qualifying for the last 16, today is a missed opportunity,” he continued.
“It’s the most inopportune moment. There are a lot of demands (on us), I think that today we couldn’t fail and we failed.”
After failing to progress from the group stage for two seasons running, Barcelona saw this clash as an opportunity to get the job done with two games to spare.
However Shakhtar, playing their home games in Hamburg because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, held their own from the start.

Barcelona missed big chances in the first match in October but this time Marino Pusic’s team shut down their uninspired visitors, who produced just one shot on target.
Xavi insisted his team’s performance in the narrow 1-0 league win over Real Sociedad on Saturday was unacceptable, despite the good result, but his team did not heed the coach’s words.
Shakhtar forced Marc-Andre ter Stegen into the first save of the game, with the German goalkeeper denying Mykola Matviienko at the near post after he got in behind Joao Cancelo.
Ilkay Gundogan and Raphinha lashed over from distance as Barca created no danger, with veteran striker Robert Lewandowski woefully disconnected on his return to Germany.

The former Bayern Munich forward has not scored in any of his last six appearances for Barca, amounting to his worst run of goalscoring form for over a decade.
The hosts took the lead a few minutes before half-time, easily slicing the visitors open when Giorgi Gocholeishvili took advantage of Barcelona left-back Marcos Alonso being a long way out of position.

The full-back crossed for Sikan, who beat Andreas Christensen in the air and headed beyond the reach of Ter Stegen.
Ter Stegen saved from Gocholeishvili early in the second half as Shakhtar continued as they left off.
Just before the hour Xavi took action, sending on speedsters Alejandro Balde and Lamine Yamal, as well as Pedri, looking to shake up his team’s lifeless display.
Barcelona were better but not bright enough, as Shakhtar goalkeeper Dmytro Riznyk enjoyed a quiet night.
“Not so long ago we were playing very good football — it’s a mental issue,” said Xavi.
Shakhtar’s latest young Brazilian winger, Newerton, scored a stunning second in the final stages but it was chalked off for offside — it would have been a superb way to crown a glorious night for Pusic’s team.

Barcelona had seven minutes of added time to work with but could not find a breakthrough, with Felix unsuccessfully appealing for a penalty after he was clipped on the edge of the box.
The Ukrainian champions, third, celebrated joyously at full-time and now sit only three points behind Barcelona, who host Porto in their next Champions League match on November 28.
“We do things step by step and we stay humble,” said Pusic, who was proud of his team’s defensive effort.
“We like to attack and we had several good moments tonight, but game organisation comes first.
“If you concede easily at this level there is not a high chance you will win.”
Barcelona midfielder Oriol Romeu said his team had to look in the mirror after their disappointing display.
“Every defeat is a warning,” he told Movistar.
“We have to be self-critical and see what we did wrong, to correct it quickly.”

www.focusmagazineonline.com with www.afp.com reports

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Champions League: Man City, Real Madrid, Bayern qualify for UCL last 16

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Expectedly, there were less drama as the record 14-time champions, Real Madrid joined holders Manchester City, last season’s runners-up Inter Milan, Real Sociedad, RB Leipzig and Bayern Munich, to qualified for the last 16 of the Champions League with two group games to spare.

However, Manchester United’s poor form continued as they slipped to a stunning 4-3 defeat against FC Copenhagen, just as FC Barcelona could not wrap up qualification, having to wait till matchday 5, before attempting to scale the hurdle.

Madrid, the record 14-time European champions, made sure of their progress from Group C with a 3-0 home win over Braga after surviving an injury setback just before kick-off.
There were grunting around the Santiago Bernabeu when starting Goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga pulled out hurt in the warm-up, but his replacement Andriy Lunin excelled by saving Alvaro Djalo’s sixth-minute penalty.

With recuperating Starman, Jude Bellingham rested, to properly recover from the shoulder injury he sustained during the LaLiga game against Rayo Vallecano over the weekend, returnee Brahim Diaz gave Real a 27th-minute lead before the fantastic Brazilian duo of Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo both scored in the second half.

Rodrygo thanked Carlo Ancelotti for supporting him through a tough start to the season after scoring in Real Madrid’s 3-0 Champions League win over Sporting Braga on Wednesday.
Rodrygo, who hasn’t found the net in LaLiga since the first weekend of the season, but has now scored in consecutive Champions League games, ran to hug Ancelotti after scoring in the 61st minute at the Santiago Bernabeu.

“I’m very happy, it was a perfect game,” Rodrygo told Movistar. “I’m very happy with the goal and the assist, but also with the win and qualification.
“The hug was to thank Ancelotti. When you aren’t in a good moment, that’s when you see who people really are. I wasn’t in a good moment and he was always there with me. I scored and I had to celebrate it with him.”

Rodrygo has been an important player for Madrid in recent seasons, contributing to their 2022 Champions League and LaLiga double and scoring 18 goals in all competitions last season, but has struggled so far this campaign.

“In my career, there’ve been forwards who’ve scored in every game and others who have moments when it’s hard to score,” Ancelotti said in his postmatch news conference. “All you can do is support them. A player with Rodrygo or Vinícius’s characteristics will score sooner or later. They have extraordinary quality, it’s just a question of time.

“Vinicius and Rodrygo combined spectacularly in the second half. There aren’t many duos who can counter-attack like Rodrygo and Vinicius.”
Ancelotti admitted that playmaker Diaz, who returned to Madrid from AC Milan last summer, had been unlucky not to play more often.
“He showed great quality, defensive sacrifice, he did very well,” Ancelotti said. “That means he could have played more minutes. But [Jude] Bellingham has played in that position. Today Brahim replaced him very well.”

The coach said goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, who dropped out of the starting XI before kickoff and was replaced by Lunin, had felt “discomfort” in the warm up and would be assessed on Thursday.

Napoli are poised to go through from the group alongside Real despite being held to a 1-1 draw at home by Union Berlin.
Matteo Politano put Napoli ahead late in the first half but David Datro Fofana, on loan from Chelsea, equalised soon after the restart.
The result allowed Union to end a 12-game losing run but they cannot now qualify for the last 16.

Their Bundesliga rivals Bayern qualified with a 2-1 victory at home to Galatasaray, their 17th consecutive win in the Champions League group stage.
Thomas Tuchel’s side saw Galatasaray have a goal disallowed for offside before Harry Kane headed in the opener with just 10 minutes left.
Kane then added another, his 19th goal already for Bayern in just 15 appearances, before Cedric Bakambu pulled one back in stoppage time for Galatasaray.

“He’s a phenomenon and we’re proud that he’s playing in the team,” Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer told broadcaster DAZN of Kane.
Galatasaray still stand every chance of going through from Group A after United lost in a remarkable game in Denmark.
Erik ten Hag’s team appeared to be cruising thanks to two goals in the first half an hour by their Danish striker Rasmus Hojlund.

Yet they suffered a blow when Marcus Rashford was controversially sent off in the 42nd minute for a foul on Elias Jelert, and Copenhagen took full advantage to haul themselves level by the break.

Mohamed Elyounoussi pulled one back before Diogo Goncalves equalised from the spot in the ninth minute of stoppage time.
Still United got back in front via a Bruno Fernandes penalty midway through the second half, but Lukas Lerager made it 3-3 seven minutes from time and Roony Bardghji, the 17-year-old Kuwait-born Swedish Under-21 international, got Copenhagen’s winner in the 87th minute.

Ten Hag’s team have now lost three of their four Champions League matches this season and have been beaten in nine of their 17 games in all competitions.
“I think first we played very good until the red card. The red card changed everything. Then it becomes a different game,” Ten Hag told broadcaster TNT Sports.
“I saw lots of positives, but in the end we lose some focus. It’s hard when you play so long with 10 men.”

Meanwhile, Arsenal are on the brink of progressing from Group B after a 2-0 home win over Sevilla, in which Bukayo Saka set up Leandro Trossard for the opener in the first half, and then added the second after the break.

“I’m really happy with the performance from the team. They showed aggression and commitment,” Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta told TNT Sports.
The Gunners are four points ahead of both Lens and PSV Eindhoven, with the Dutch side boosting their own hopes by beating the French side 1-0 thanks to Luuk de Jong’s early header.
Lens had substitute Morgan Guilavogui sent off late on.

In Group D, Inter secured their progress with a 1-0 win away to Red Bull Salzburg in Austria, a game settled by a late Lautaro Martinez penalty.
That result also allowed Real Sociedad to qualify after their earlier 3-1 defeat of Portuguese giants Benfica, who have lost all four matches in the group.

Mikel Merino, Mikel Oyarzabal and Ander Barrenetxea all scored in the first 21 minutes for the hosts, before Brais Mendez hit the post with a penalty. Rafa Silva pulled one back for Benfica.

www.focusmagazineonline.com with www.afp.com reports

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Ancelotti returns to Napoli with Real to prove a Point

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Fourteen times champions, Spain’s Real Madrid are set to play one of the most in-form teams in Italy in what promises to be their “toughest group-stage game”, as veteran coach, Italian Carlo Ancelotti, said on Monday (02 October) ahead of the huge Champions League clash.

LaLiga leaders Real began their quest for a record-extending 15th European Cup with a last-gasp 1-0 home victory over Union Berlin last month, while Italian champions Napoli, who are currently third in Serie A, won 2-1 at Sporting Braga.
Tuesday’s clash at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium could be pivotal to both sides’ aims of taking top spot in group C.

“We’ll play against one of the best teams in Italy. They did very well last year. It will be a competitive and evenly matched game as they have a high level,” Ancelotti, who once managed Napoli, told a news conference.
“It’s going to be the toughest game of the group stage for us. I don’t want to say that we’re used to it, but the shirt of this club weighs on us.”
The match will also see Ancelotti return to Naples after he managed 73 games at the club from 2018 to 2019, leading the team in an unbeaten run in the Champions group stage before being sacked with the team in seventh place in Serie A.

“I had positive moments, it is a wonderful city. There were also less good moments, but I have the memory of a positive experience,” Ancelotti said.
“Backtracking before a game like this doesn’t make sense. When the relationship between a club and a coach doesn’t have the right feeling, it’s better to stop.
“I think it was the right decision for Napoli and for me, because two years later I came back to the best club in the world.”

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti is not a man to hold a grudge, as reflected by his return to the Spanish capital despite being harshly sacked by Los Blancos chief Florentino Perez in 2015.
However the 64-year-old veteran would doubtless enjoy proving a point when his Madrid side visit Napoli in the Champions League on Tuesday at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium.

Ancelotti was axed by president Aurelio De Laurentiis in December 2019, less than an hour after helping Napoli reach the Champions League knock-out stages with a 4-0 thrashing of Genk.
The Italian side were struggling in seventh in Serie A at the time and won their first Scudetto for 33 years in 2023, so De Laurentiis will consider his decisions more than justified.

Ancelotti spent a year and a half in charge of Napoli, guiding them to a second place finish in the 2018-19 campaign, but his tenure was abruptly cut short in its sophomore year.
At the time it seemed Ancelotti had reached the game’s summit years earlier and was on the way down football’s food chain, with his next appointment at Everton appearing to confirm that.
Dressing room tensions and a dispute with De Laurentiis over a training camp led to his downfall in Campania. The president appeared to think Ancelotti did not have it in him to manage the squad.

However Ancelotti’s surprise return to the helm of Madrid in 2021 put him back among the elite, and in 2022 he won his fourth Champions League title as a coach, more than anyone else, as well as LaLiga to complete a superb double.

Meanwhile, Madrid’s 3-0 win at Girona on Sunday ensures they also arrive in Italy as leaders in LaLiga, after a wobble in the derby against rivals Atletico Madrid. A painful 3-1 loss at the Metropolitano on September 24 saw Ancelotti come in for criticism for his tactics and diamond midfield system.

However the Italian made some minor changes and it proved sufficient to earn a comfortable victory over the high-flying Catalans, who had hoped to score a second consecutive home win over Madrid at Montilivi.
“Winning here means that we did well and I’d like to highlight our defensive work, which was very good,” Ancelotti told reporters.

The coach deployed Eduardo Camavinga at left-back instead of the more attacking Fran Garcia, and also asked Jude Bellingham to help with covering Girona to ease the burden on Vinicius Junior.
“We put Bellingham on the outside to avoid Vini having too many defensive duties, bearing in mind that (Aurelien) Tchouameni was in the centre to provide cover,” added Ancelotti.

Bellingham has seven goals and two assists this season across all competitions, largely playing in the number 10 role, despite his capacity to operate in deeper areas.
It was an “invention” by Ancelotti to help cover for the departed Karim Benzema and so far it has paid dividends for the England international, top scorer in Spain.

The coach’s tactical shift and subsequent tweaks dispel any doubts over his dedication at Madrid, showing he is not just on cruise control and heading towards the Brazil national team job he is set to take next summer.
Part of the reason behind the new set-up is to add muscle to the team and bolster the midfield, after Manchester City demolished the record 14-time European champions in last season’s semifinal.

The visit to Napoli will be another acid test for both Ancelotti’s plan and Madrid’s squad depth, with striker Victor Osimhen in excellent form, despite his recent anger over the club insulting him on social media network TikTok.
Los Blancos are without injured defender David Alaba, leaving only Antonio Rudiger and Nacho Fernandez available in central defence.

Napoli coach Rudi Garcia will also be looking forward to the game – he was due to face Madrid when at Roma in 2016, but was sacked ahead of the last 16 tie.
Real Madrid and Napoli last met in the Champions League in the 2016-17 round of 16 when the Spanish giants won both legs 3-1 to and went on to claim the title.

www.focusmagazineonline.com with www.afp.com and www.reuters reports

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