Ballon d’Or results LIVE: Winners revealed as Karim Benzema beats Sadio Mane and Kevin De Bruyne to award
Alexia Putellas won the Ballon d’Or Feminin for the second year in a row while Thibaut Courtois, Sadio Mane, Robert Lewandowski and Gavi also won prizes
Karim Benzema has won the men’s Ballon d’Or, becoming just the second player outside of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to be awarded the prize in the past 15 years. Benzema won the trophy after leading Real Madrid to the LaLiga and Champions League double last season and scoring a remarkable 44 goals in 46 appearances for the Spanish club.
Benzema finished ahead of Sadio Mane, Kevin De Bruyne and Robert Lewandowski at the Paris ceremony to crown a sensational year for the France international, as he followed his Real Madrid team-mate Luka Modric by breaking through Messi and Ronaldo’s dominance of football’s greatest individual prize.
Earlier, Barcelona captain Alexia Putellas became the first two-time winner of the Ballon d’Or Feminin after taking back-to-back awards. England and Arsenal forward Beth Mead, who was the top scorer at Euro 2020, finished second, ahead of the Chelsea striker Sam Kerr. Barcelona midfielder Gavi won the Kopa Trophy for best young player while Thibaut Courtois won the Yashin Trophy for best goalkeeper.
Ballon d’Or: Gavi wins the Kopa Trophy!
And the Kopa Trophy will be staying at the Nou Camp! Gavi is the 2022 Kopa Trophy winner!
Like Pedri before him, Gavi became a Barcelona and Spain regular in midfield at the age of just 18 last season. He helped Barcelona to qualify for the Champions League under Xavi after an improved second half of the season.
Drogba says Gavi and Pedri already remind him of Xavi and Iniesta.
The midfielder is then presented with his own... NFT.
Ballon d’Or
Karim Benzema is sitting in the front row alongside Sadio Mane and Kevin De Bruyne, who is next to his former Manchester City colleague Lucy Bronze. Alexia Putellas is alongside the previous winner of the Ballon d’Or Feminin Ada Hegerberg.
There are loads of legends in the crowd too, including Zinedine Zidane and El Phenomenon Ronaldo. The two-time Ballon d’Or winner Ronaldo will present tonight’s first award alongside last season’s Kopa Trophy winner Pedri.
Ballon d’Or
Like last year, the former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba is helping to conduct the ceremony, which will be presented in both French and English.
Ballon d’Or
The ceremony begins with Andrea Boccelli singing a rendition of Nessun dorma in full Italia 90 style, as the trophies are then brought out on stage in front of a montage of previous winners.
Ballon d’Or:
The Ballon d’Or trophy has arrived.... strapped onto the top of an F1 car. The Alpine driver Esteban Ocon, who races for the only French F1 team, then gets out of the car and delivers the trophy ahead of the ceremony. Quite an entrance.
Ballon d’Or: Contenders for Ballon d’Or Feminin
The rankings for the Ballon d’Or Feminin have yet to be announced, so all 20 nominees still have a chance of lifting this year’s award. Alexia Putellas, last season’s winner, remains the favourite.
- Selma Bacha (Lyon)
- Aitana Bonmatí (Barcelona)
- Millie Bright (Chelsea)
- Lucy Bronze (Manchester City)
- Kadidiatou Diani (Paris Saint-Germain)
- Christiane Endler (Lyon)
- Ada Hegerberg (Lyon)
- Sam Kerr (Chelsea)
- Marie-Antoinette Katoto (Paris Saint-Germain)
- Catarina Macario (Lyon)
- Beth Mead (Arsenal)
- Vivianne Miedema (Arsenal)
- Alex Morgan (Orlando Pride, San Diego Wave)
- Lena Oberdorf (Wolfsburg)
- Asisat Oshoala (Barcelona)
- Alexandra Popp (Wolfsburg)
- Alexia Putellas (Barcelona)
- Wendie Renard (Lyon)
- Trinity Rodman (Washington Spirit)
- Fridolina Rolfo (Barcelona)
Ballon d’Or: Favourite Benzema arrives
Back in Paris, Karim Benzema arrives ahead of the Ballon d’Or ceremomy.
“Happy to be here,” he says. “It’s my first time. Hope to have great news tonight.”
Ballon d’Or: Rankings so far from 30 -11
11th: Son Heung-min (Tottenham Hotspur)
12th: Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City)
13th: Sébastien Haller (Ajax)
=14th: Fabinho (Liverpool)
=14th: Rafael Leão (Milan)
16th: Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
= 17th: Casemiro (Real Madrid)
= 17th: Dušan Vlahović (Fiorentina, Juventus)
= 17th: Luis Díaz (Porto, Liverpool)
20th: Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus, Manchester United)
21st: Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur)
= 22nd: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool)
= 22nd: Phil Foden (Manchester City)
= 22nd: Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)
= 25th: Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich)
= 25th: Mike Maignan (Milan)
= 25th: Antonio Rüdiger (Chelsea)
= 25th: João Cancelo (Manchester City)
= 25th: Christopher Nkunku (RB Leipzig)
= 25th: Darwin Núñez (Benfica)
Ballon d’Or: Red carpet underway
The starts are arriving on the red carpet ahead of the start of the ceremony at 7:30pm. The trickle of rankings results has stopped for now but the top 10 will be revealed soon.
Ballon d’Or: Previous winners
Karim Benzema tonight has the chance to break through Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo’s dominance of the Ballon d’Or by joining Luka Modric as an outlier over the past 15 years, but spare a thought for Robert Lewandowsi who would have won had the ceremony been held in 2020.
2021 - Messi
2019 - Messi
2018 - Modric
2017 - Ronaldo
2016 - Ronaldo
2015 - Messi
2014 - Ronaldo
2013 - Ronaldo
2012 - Messi
2011 - Messi
2010 - Messi
2009 - Messi
2008 - Ronaldo
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments