Who better placed than a Ballon d’Or to salute the reward of Karim Benzema, who received the supreme distinction on Monday evening in Paris? Michel Platini certainly, himself triple Ballon d’Or in 1983, 1984 and 1985. Rather than covering the striker of Real and the France team with praise, the former number 10 legend of the Blues, 67, has somehow dubbed him, while making him pass two or three things what he has learned from the condition of “Golden Ball” over the past forty years.
Asked whether Benzema had become a footballing legend, Platini of course answered in the affirmative on the program “Rothen ignites” on RMC this Tuesday evening: “Absolutely, of course. At my advanced age, when I walk around and people your age (Jérôme Rothen, the former PSG player is 44) want me to sign a shirt or a ball, the kids don’t know me. When they say that I have won three Ballons d’Or, the kid opens his eyes wide like that. The Ballon d’Or has become very important in today’s youth, more than in our time. Today, you win a Golden Ball and you enter the elite of the greatest players in the world. »
Fifth French footballer Ballon d’Or after Raymond Kopa (1958), Platini, Jean-Pierre Papin (1991) and Zinedine Zidane (1998), Benzema, who received the award from the hands of Zidane on Monday evening, was also greeted by this last, distinguished a quarter of a century (24 years) before him.
“I have seen you work a lot to make your game progress and become what you are,” Zidane wrote in an Instagram message to Benzema, whom he coached at Real Madrid between 2016 and 2018 and then between 2019. and 2021. You have always sought to improve yourself. Today, this trophy rewards this work and this exceptional year! ” And the 1998 world champion to invite his successor to rise further next month in the jersey of the Blues: “I hope you will continue to delight us at Real and during this World Cup with the French team… “