Karim Benzema Celebrated by Fans After 'Inevitable' 2022 Ballon d'Or Win

Karim Benzema has been nominated for the Ballon d'Or 10 times in his excellent career. Finally, he's won one.

Benzema, 34, topped Bayern Munich's Sadio Mane, Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne and Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski to win the award.

And fans and folks across the sporting world were singing his praises on Monday. It was one of the least surprising or divisive decisions in years:

One of the reasons the talented French striker didn't previously win the award was that it was dominated by the pair of PSG forward Lionel Messi and Manchester United forward Cristiano Ronaldo, who won it in 12 of the past 13 years. Only Luka Modric (2018) broke up that run of dominance before Benzema.

End of an era, indeed. But Benzema was a worthy winner, leading Real Madrid to both a Champions League and La Liga title while scoring 42 goals and adding 15 assists between the two competitions.

He also had three goals in five World Cup qualifiers for France during the 2021-22 period.

It was the sort of season that would have challenged Ronaldo and Messi in their prime years and given voters an interesting decision to make. With that dynamic pair in the twilight of their careers and Benzema leading Real Madrid to domestic and European glory, however, it was an easy call to make.

And so it was Benzema's season, and Monday was Benzema's night. It was well-earned, and utterly indisputable.