PARIS —- Karim Benzema has been crowned new winner of the Ballon d’Or annual award from the Paris magazine France Football after captaining Real Madrid to success in the Champions League and Spanish league. He was also top scorer in both competitions.

Having already won the UEFA Player of the Year award, the 34-year-old became the fifth French winner after Raymond Kopa (1958), Michel Platini (1983, 1984, 1985), Jean-Pierre Papin (1991) and Zinédine Zidane (1998).

Runner-up was Sadio Mané, who left Liverpool in the summer and signed for Bayern, followed by Manchester City’s Kevin de Bruyne. Benzema succeeded Leo Messi, who in 2021 won it for the seventh time, a record. Fourth place went to Barcelona and Poland’s Robert Lewandowski.

Barcelona’s Alexia Putellas retained the women’s award ahead of England’s Euro 2022 winner and Arsenal forward Beth Mead. English champions Manchester City, who had six nominees at the ceremony, were awarded Club of the Year ahead of Liverpool and Real Madrid.

Born in Lyon to Algerian parents, Benzema began his senior career with hometown club Olympique Lyonnais in 2005, contributing sporadically to three Ligue 1 title wins.

In 2008, he was named the league’s Player of the Year and in the Team of the Year having finished as the league’s top goalscorer and winning his fourth league title and first Coupe de France.

In 2009, Benzema was the subject of a then French record football transfer when he signed for Real Madrid in a transfer worth €35 million.

After struggling to establish himself in his debut season, he eventually achieved a consistent goalscoring rate with the club, and notably went on to be part of a highly rated trio alongside Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale — dubbed BBC — who were integral to a period where Real Madrid won four UEFA Champions League titles from 2014 to 2018.

Following Ronaldo’s departure in 2018, Benzema transitioned from the false 9 position into a sole striker.

His prominence in Real Madrid’s squad significantly increased, with him being named in the LaLiga Team of the Season in 2018–19, 2019–20, 2020–21 and 2021–22, awarded the league’s Best Player in 2019–20 and 2021–22, and also winning the Pichichi Trophy in 2021–22.

Captaining the team, his notable career-high performances during Real Madrid’s victory in the 2021–22 Champions League have been hailed as one of the finest individual campaigns in the competition’s history, in addition to becoming the top scorer and winning the Player of the Season award.

Benzema has won 23 trophies with Real Madrid, including four La Liga, two Copa del Rey, and five Champions League titles.

A French international, Benzema won the 2004 UEFA European Under-17 Championship and made his senior debut for France in 2007, at age 19. He has since earned over 90 caps, including scoring in three and appearing in four major tournaments: the 2008, 2012 and 2020 editions of the UEFA European Championship, and the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

He scored his first goal in a friendly against Austria, and ranks as his nation’s fifth-highest all-time top goalscorer.

Benzema was controversially left out of the squad for the 2010 World Cup, and did not play for France for over five years after being implicated in a scandal in 2015; he returned to the squad for Euro 2020. He has been named French Player of the Year by France Football four times.

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