Benzema Triumph Marks (Likely) End of the Messi-Ronaldo Era

Karim Benzema has finally done it. The 34-year-old Frenchman crowned his career with the Ballon D’Or on Monday after leading Real Madrid to win La Liga and the Champions League last season. Benzema was the top scorer in both competitions with 27 goals in La Liga and 15 goals in the Champions League, where he managed to score three times against Paris Saint-Germain, four times against Chelsea and three times against Manchester City to carry his team to the final in Paris.

Two months before his 35th birthday, Benzema became the oldest Ballon d’Or winner since Stanley Matthews won the inaugural Ballon d’Or in 1956 at age 41. He is also the first Frenchman to win football’s most prestigious individual prize since Zinedine Zidane in 1998. After joining Real Madrid in 2009, Benzema had the “misfortune” of playing alongside Cristiano Ronaldo in his prime, who overshadowed the striker’s contribution until he left for Juventus in 2018.

Benzema’s triumph likely marks the end of the Messi-Ronaldo era at the Ballon d’Or. As the following chart shows, Ronaldo and Messi, now aged 37 and 35, respectively, won 12 out of 13 awards between 2008 and 2021, with Messi winning a record 7 trophies to Ronaldo’s 5. While both, the Portuguese superstar and the Argentinian maestro are still playing, they are both past their prime and considered unlikely to win the Ballon d’Or again. Unless of course, Messi finally manages to carry his country to World Cup glory in Qatar, which would automatically make him a contender for next year’s award.