Opinion – The World is a Ball: What to expect at the World Cup winners at the Ballon d’Or ceremony

Five winners at the ceremony known as the Ballon d’Or, held in Paris and organized by France Football magazine, will, barring unforeseen circumstances, be at the Qatar World Cup, which begins on November 20.

They are Frenchman Benzema, 34, from Real Madrid, Polish Lewandowski, 34, from Barcelona, ​​Senegalese Mané, 30, from Bayern Munich, Belgian Courtois, 30, from Real Madrid, and Spaniard Gavi, 18, from Barcelona.

They won, in order, at the event at the Théatre du Châtele, the prizes for the best in the world (Golden Ball), top scorer (Gerd Müller Trophy), community actions (Sócrates Trophy), best goalkeeper (Yashin Trophy) and best young player (Kopa Trophy), from August 2021 to July 2022.

And what to expect from each of these celebrities at the first World Cup in the Middle East?

From the front men (Benzema, Lewandowski and Mané), obviously, goals and more goals.

Will one of them be able to break the record for goals scored in a single World Cup?

Very difficult. That brand belongs to Just Fontaine, who scored 13 times in Sweden in 1958 in six matches.

Who theoretically has more chance of achieving the unlikely feat is Benzema, compatriot of Fontaine (now 89 years old), due to the volume of offensive play by France, current world champions.

In fact, the Ballon d’Or winner should arrive in Qatar with a tremendous hunger for goals, as he did not go to the Russian Cup in 2018, as he was removed from the team due to a lawsuit in court that involved his participation in the case of blackmail. to Valbuena, teammate.

However, it will be difficult for Benzema to monopolize the shots, as he will have two other strikers at his side in the attack, Mbappé and Griezmann.

In the first phase, the French rivals will be Australia, Denmark and Tunisia.

Lewandowski is Poland’s lone star, its captain, its greatest goalscorer and the national team’s great hope of reaching the group stage.

The problem is that the ball gets to him, as the Poles have long struggled with creating plays.

In this scenario, the centre-forward, who went blank in the 2018 World Cup, will have to have a very high use in finishing.

He will try to succeed against Argentina, Mexico and Saudi Arabia.

Like Lewandowski in Poland, Mané is Senegal’s biggest star and the player who has scored the most goals for his national team.

Unlike Lewa and Benzema, Mané is not a player with a constant presence in the area, playing more on the left of the attack, with swing and speed.

For the Senegalese – who succumbed together with Poland in the same group in the Russian Cup – to survive in their group, Mané, who often scores goals but squanders more than acceptable chances, will have to be very sharp and precise in his conclusions.

Senegal’s opponents are the Netherlands, Ecuador and hosts Qatar.

Courtois, a 2-meter high wall, is a bad memory for the Brazilian team, as he closed the goal in the quarter-final match that eliminated Brazil from the 2018 World Cup. , portentous.

The goalkeeper, who is recovering from a back injury that should not be a threat to his presence at the World Cup, is a safe haven for the Red Devils.

His height, combined with his stature, is a tremendous asset, and other qualities he has are his coolness, positioning and reflexes, in addition to his experience in World Cups – there were five games in 2014, in Brazil, and seven in 2018, in the campaign that finished in third place.

Thus, Courtois, who in these 12 appearances conceded nine goals (or less than one per game) has more matches in World Cups than Benzema (5), Lewandowski (3) and Mané (3) combined.

The hulking archer, Benzema’s Real Madrid teammate, will try to keep his goal intact in the group where Belgium will rival Croatia, Morocco and Canada.

Finally, Gavi (Pablo Martín Páez Gavira), who, aged 18 (looks 13) and half-skinny (1.73 m, 70 kg), hopes to make his World Cup debut.

A modern midfielder, who scores and leaves for the game, he will look forward to being selected by coach Luis Enrique.

There is no certainty about his starting position, but the coach has already chosen Spain with the same formation as Barcelona’s midfield: the seasoned Busquets, 34, and the revelations Pedri, 19, and Gavi.

If Gavi manages to score a goal –in the group stage, Fúria will face Germany, Costa Rica and Japan–, he will be the third youngest to do so in a World Cup, behind Pelé (17 years and 239 days in Sweden-1958) and of the Mexican Manuel Rosas (18 years and 93 days in Uruguay-1930).