Ballon d'Or 2022: Ranking the top 5 favorites - March 2022
The Ballon d'Or is the most coveted individual award in football. Only the greatest players to have graced the game have been able to take home the prestigious trophy.
The Ballon d'Or is awarded by French news magazine France Football to the best performing footballer in a calendar year.
Lionel Messi won the 2021 Ballon d'Or
Lionel Messi won his seventh Ballon d'Or last year. The Argentinian is the player with the most wins in the history of the award. Cristiano Ronaldo is second with five Ballon d'Ors. The duo have exercised a sort of duopoly over the award over the past decade and more.
The Ballon d'Or winner is chosen on the basis of a combination of votes from journalists, national team captains and coaches.
Without further ado, let's take a look at the top five favorites to win the Ballon d'Or this year as of March.
#5 Lionel Messi (Argentina/Paris Saint-Germain)
Lionel Messi failed to hit the ground running at Paris Saint-Germain. Although he was in sensational form in the Champions League from the get-go, life in Ligue 1 needed a bit of getting used to for La Pulga.
But Messi seems to be getting back to his best since the turn of the year. He has 10 goal involvements in his last 10 appearances across all competitions for PSG, scoring three and assisting seven.
He has scored seven goals and provided 11 assists in 23 appearances across all competitions this season for PSG. Messi presently has the most assists in Ligue 1 despite missing 11 league games due to various injury issues. He also leads the assists chart in Europe's top five leagues in 2022.
Lionel Messi has the most assists in Ligue 1 this season (11) despite missing 11 league games 🐐 https://t.co/dNv2KTZLB5
#4 Karim Benzema (France/Real Madrid)
Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema has performed admirably in Real Madrid's last two outings in February. He was relatively quiet against PSG in the Champions League but that wasn't entirely the Frenchman's fault as he was starved for service in that game.
Benzema scored a goal and set up two more as Real Madrid beat Deportivo Alaves just a few days after their loss to PSG. He then scored the only goal of the game as Real Madrid got the better of Rayo Vallecano.
Benzema has been performing at a different level this season. He has scored 26 goals and provided 11 assists in just 31 appearances across all competitions for Real Madrid this term.
Los Blancos have a six-point lead at the top and it's Benzema's lavish contributions that have propelled them and kept them there.
Benzema and Vini link up for the clutch goal 🤩 https://t.co/glUGyVM8vm