Ballon d’Or 2022 LIVE: Benzema wins award

There are emotional scenes as Benzema invites his mother and then son onto the stage in Paris.

It’s a special night not just for Benzema but French football as he becomes the fifth player from the country to win the award.

The top four of the rankings as confirmed, with Sadio Mane in second place, Kevin De Bruyne third and Robert Lewandowski fourth.

It comes as a video tribute is played for Benzema, with praise from Carlo Ancelotti and Jose Mourinho.

“He keeps getting better with age,” Ancelotti says of his captain.

Incredibly, at 34 Benzema is the oldest Ballon d’Or winner since Stanley Matthews won the first Ballon d’Or in 1956.

Zidane opens the envelope and declares the winner of the Ballon d’Or to be… Karim Benzema!

A special moment for Benzema, who completes a stunning year by becoming the first French winner of the Ballon d’Or since Zidane in 1998.

“Karim, Karim, Karim,” cry the crowd in Paris!

“This prize in front of me makes me proud of the work I did from a young age. “I had the motivation, I had two role models in my life, Zidane and Ronaldo. I always had this dream in my mind that anything was possible.

“There were difficult periods where I wasn’t in the French team but I kept working hard. I’m really proud of my journey here. It wasn’t easy, it was difficult. It was hard for my family as well. To be here today, I’m just really happy. I would like to thank my team-mates.”

But now we are onto the final prize, which will be awarded by the last French player to win the Ballon d’Or: Zinedine Zidane.

And now it is time for the final prize of the evening. A former winner in 2000, Luis Figo will present the 2022 award. “The King of Dribbling”, Drogba declares.

Oh, not quite there yet. First we will have the ‘Club of the Year’ award, and it is handed to Manchester City after winning their fourth Premier League title. Bit of a surprise as I expected Real Madrid to win that.

City had six nominees for the Ballon d’Or and beat Liverpool and Real Madrid to the honour, which is collected by Kevin De Bruyne and Ederson.

De Bruyne: “I’ve been there for eight years and we try to play in the right way, to play in a way that would inspire kids to play. We have won a lot, not quite the Champions League just yet, but we are proud with how we play.”

So that leaves just four names for the men’s award: Karim Benzema, Sadio Mane, Kevin De Bruyne and Robert Lewandowski.

Here’s the rankings for the Yashin Trophy:

1st: Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid)

3rd: Ederson (Manchester City)

4th: Edouard Mendy (Chelsea)

5th: Mike Maignan (AC Milan)

A deserved award for the Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who was man of the match as his team defeated Liverpool in the Champions League final. Of all the clean sheets he kept last season, in stopping Liverpool in the 1-0 win that was by far the most important. Courtois is unquestionably the best goalkeeper in the world right now.

Sebastian Haller, who finished 13th in the Ballon d’Or and is in Paris, presents Courtois with the trophy. The Beglian finished ahead of Alisson, Edouard Mendy, Mike Maignan and Ederson to win the award.

There’s another top-five finish for Mohamed Salah in the men’s Ballon d’Or as the Liverpool forward finishes ahead of PSG striker Kylian Mbappe. Real Madrid’s Thibaut Courtois is the top goalkeeper in this year’s rankings and will soon be confirmed as the Yashin Trophy winner.

5th: Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)

7th: Thibaut Courtoius (Real Madrid)

… and for the second year in a row, Robert Lewandowski wins the Gerd Muller award! Before leaving Bayern Munich, Lewandowski broke Muller’s single-season record for goals in a Bundesliga season. “Because of him, I could do it,” Lewandowski says. “He is an inspiration to me.”

Lewandowski scored 57 goals in all competitions in his eighth and final season with Bayern Munich.