Home ›› 01 Jun 2022 ›› Sport
Real Madrid’s France star Karim Benezema deserves to win the Ballon d’Or, according to seven-time laureate Lionel Messi.
Benzema was crucial in Madrid’s Champions League victory this season, culminating with a 1-0 win over Liverpool in Paris on Saturday.
Although he did not score in the final, Benzema’s back-to-back hat-tricks in the knock-out rounds, starting with a 17-minute treble against Messi’s Paris Saint-Germain to overturn a 2-0 aggregate deficit, were crucial to generating the momentum that swept the Spaniards to the title.
“There’s no doubt, it’s very clear that Benzema has had a spectacular year and has ended it by winning the Champions League,” Messi told Argentine channel TyC Sports.
“He was crucial from the last-16 onwards in every match and I think there’s no doubt” that Benzema deserves to win the Ballon d’Or.
Having spent his entire career at Barcelona, the 34-year-old moved to PSG a year ago where he has struggled to reproduce his best form.
He admitted it had been “a difficult change” and that the first day he took his children to school in Paris he left “crying”.
Having caught Covid-19 at the end of 2021, Messi is convinced the virus has left “scars” in his lungs while he also admitted the Champions League capitulation against Real was “a tough blow”.
