If Benzema doesn’t win the Ballon d’Or, I’ll no longer believe in the award, says ex-Real Madrid

Champions League top scorer with 15 goals and decisive in the knockout stages. Top scorer in LaLiga with 26 goals and Spanish champion. The numbers and importance of Karim Benzema for Real Madrid this season, which could end with the European title, make the French striker a strong candidate for the main individual awards.

The Ballon d’Or, awarded by France Football magazine to the best player of the season, will be awarded to the winner in October this year.

For Guti, a former Real Madrid midfielder, there is no other name to receive the distinction than Benzema.

“If he doesn’t win this year, he will never win. I don’t know another player who has made such a difference in decisive moments, both in his league and in the Champions. It would be crazy for him not to win. I would stop believing in the Ballon d’Or if he year don’t give it to Karim Benzema”, said the Spaniard at an event organized by LaLiga in Madrid, with the presence of Sheet.

Guti, a five-time Spanish champion and three-time champion of the Champions League with the club, was Benzema’s teammate in the 2009/2010 season, the Frenchman’s first in Madrid.

There were only eight goals in that edition of LaLiga. Normal for a young promise that had been presented days after Cristiano Ronaldo, with an unnumbered shirt on his back and in front of just 15,000 fans at the Santiago Bernabéu.

This Benzema who needed to prove himself was left behind. Especially after Ronaldo left Spain in 2018, he assumed the role of reference in attack and saw his numbers improve: 30 goals in 2018/2019, 27 in 2019/2020, 30 again in 2020/2021 and 43 goals in 43 matches in the current season.

More than the statistical records, the relevance of the balls he has sent to the back of the net is worth.

In the Champions League play-offs against Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Manchester City alone, he scored ten goals, including the one that put Real Madrid in yet another European final.

“There is a lot of talk about Mbappé. He played good games with the national team, good games in his league. It’s true that, against Real Madrid, he almost decides the tie with his goals. But in the end [a eliminação] did not happen, and Benzema scored three goals against PSG in one game, three against Chelsea in another game, as well as goals against City. We are talking about something impressive”, adds Guti, who believes that the Benzema who saw Real Madrid go blind more than a decade ago is now deserving of the individual distinctions that the season will give him.