Zidane on Benzema: “He is a player who deserves to win the Ballon d’Or”

Real Madrid’s ‘Los Galacticos’ got together off the pitch to push for Karim Benzema. First it was Ronaldo Nazario, then Roberto Carlos and a few hours ago Zinedine Zidane joined in the request to award the Ballon d’Or to the current captain of the ‘White House’, whom he directed a few months ago.

“He is a player who deserves to win the Ballon d’Or. He is an incredible player”, said on the Téléfoot program, who was his coach for five seasons at Real Madrid and the last Frenchman to have won that award, in 1998.

At 33, the forward is going through the best moment of his career, both at his club, which has become the centerpiece of the team, and at the French national team, where after a return that seemed unlikely he has become the soul of the ” Bleus’.

“I had the great honor of being able to train him. He is a player who mixes easily with others, a player who knows how to do everything on the field. It’s the moment. It is an important moment for him and I hope it can be rewarded “Zidane added.

For the French attacker it is his tenth candidacy and his best final classification is the 16 he obtained in 1994. He entered the list of finalists for the first time in 2008, at only 21 years old and still as a Lyon player.

The Ballon d’Or award ceremony will take place at a gala at the Châtelet Theater in Paris, the same place where Messi received him for the sixth time in 2019. ‘France Football’ will also award that same day the Women’s Ballon d’Or, the Kopa trophy, to the best player under 21 years of age, and the Yashin trophy, to the best goalkeeper.

The sports pages Marca (Spain), La Gazzetta dello Sport (Italy), Voetbal (Netherlands) and Nuevo Herald (United States) see Lionel as the probable winner, taking into account that the other candidates have not had good presentations or results. . One of them Cristiano Ronaldo with Portugal, when he was eliminated in the round of 16 of the European Championship.