{"id":100447,"date":"2022-10-18T12:25:36","date_gmt":"2022-10-18T11:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=100447"},"modified":"2022-10-18T12:25:36","modified_gmt":"2022-10-18T11:25:36","slug":"benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Benzema Wins His First Ballon D\u2019Or After Stunning 44-Goal Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Karim Benzema has been rewarded for his career-best 2021\/2022 season with his first Ballon d\u2019Or in a ceremony at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Real Madrid captain was a strong favourite for the top award on Monday after inspiring the Spanish giants to a La-Liga and UEFA Champions League double last term.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Ahead of a November to December FIFA World Cup, a change in the format saw the Ballon d\u2019Or awarded based on performances over a regular season for the first time.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It rather used to be over the calendar year.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>France international Benzema would have been a leading candidate in either case.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>But he was the clear winner after scoring 44 goals in 46 matches and earning a fifth European crown in the 2021\/2022 campaign.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Although his haul was topped by Robert Lewandowski (50) \u2014 then of Bayern Munich and now of FC Barcelona \u2014 10 of Benzema\u2019s goals came in the Champions League knockout stages.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He tied a Cristiano Ronaldo single-season record.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Vinicius Junior netted the decisive strike in the final against Liverpool.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>But Benzema had already established himself as the world\u2019s best with hat-tricks against both Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Chelsea.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Adding 15 assists, Benzema\u2019s total of 59 goal involvements last season fell just shy of Kylian Mbappe\u2019s Europe-wide high of 60 (39 goals, 21 assists).<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Benzema had been nominated for the Ballon d\u2019Or on 10 previous occasions but only cracked the top 10 for the first time in 2021.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He finished fourth as Lionel Messi \u2013 not nominated this year \u2013 claimed a seventh award.<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Karim Benzema has been rewarded for his career-best 2021\/2022 season with his first Ballon d\u2019Or in a ceremony at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris. Real Madrid captain was a&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Benzema Wins His First Ballon D\u2019Or After Stunning 44-Goal Season - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Benzema Wins His First Ballon D\u2019Or After Stunning 44-Goal Season - Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Karim Benzema has been rewarded for his career-best 2021\/2022 season with his first Ballon d\u2019Or in a ceremony at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris. Real Madrid captain was a&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-10-18T11:25:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Benzema.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"394\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Our Reporter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Our Reporter\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Our Reporter\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c\"},\"headline\":\"Benzema Wins His First Ballon D\u2019Or After Stunning 44-Goal Season\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-10-18T11:25:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/\"},\"wordCount\":260,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Benzema.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/\",\"name\":\"Benzema Wins His First Ballon D\u2019Or After Stunning 44-Goal Season - Pointblank News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Benzema.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-10-18T11:25:36+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Benzema.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Benzema.jpg\",\"width\":700,\"height\":394},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Benzema Wins His First Ballon D\u2019Or After Stunning 44-Goal Season\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/\",\"name\":\"Pointblank News\",\"description\":\"Just the news\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c\",\"name\":\"Our Reporter\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Our Reporter\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Benzema Wins His First Ballon D\u2019Or After Stunning 44-Goal Season - Pointblank News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Benzema Wins His First Ballon D\u2019Or After Stunning 44-Goal Season - Pointblank News","og_description":"Karim Benzema has been rewarded for his career-best 2021\/2022 season with his first Ballon d\u2019Or in a ceremony at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris. Real Madrid captain was a&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/","og_site_name":"Pointblank News","article_published_time":"2022-10-18T11:25:36+00:00","og_image":[{"width":700,"height":394,"url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Benzema.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Our Reporter","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Our Reporter","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/"},"author":{"name":"Our Reporter","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c"},"headline":"Benzema Wins His First Ballon D\u2019Or After Stunning 44-Goal Season","datePublished":"2022-10-18T11:25:36+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/"},"wordCount":260,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Benzema.jpg","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/","url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/","name":"Benzema Wins His First Ballon D\u2019Or After Stunning 44-Goal Season - Pointblank News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Benzema.jpg","datePublished":"2022-10-18T11:25:36+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Benzema.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Benzema.jpg","width":700,"height":394},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/benzema-wins-his-first-ballon-dor-after-stunning-44-goal-season\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Benzema Wins His First Ballon D\u2019Or After Stunning 44-Goal Season"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/","name":"Pointblank News","description":"Just the news","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c","name":"Our Reporter","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Our Reporter"},"url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}