After Real Madrid beat Liverpool 1-0 in the Champions League final in Paris on Saturday, Karim Benzema said that he had done everything he could this season to make himself a favorite for the Ballon d’Or.
Benzema did not score in the final at the Stade de France, as Vinicius Junior scored the game’s sole goal, but was the Champions League’s top scorer with 15 goals, including 10 in the knockout stages.
“Of course,” the 34-year-old told Canal Plus when asked if the Ballon d’Or was on his mind after a season in which he also won La Liga and Champions League with Real Madrid.
“Now I will join up with the national team but I don’t think I can do much more with my club.
“We will see what happens, but in any case I am proud of what I have done.”
After scoring 44 goals for Real this season, Benzema will link up with the France squad for a set of UEFA Nations League games in June.
In the Champions League knockout rounds, he scored hat-tricks against PSG and Chelsea, and he scored three times in the semi-final against Manchester City over two legs.
“There is no luck,” he said in reference to a series of remarkable comeback wins on their run to the final.
“You can be lucky once but not every time. We deserve our victory. We put in the effort, we came back every time, we never gave up.
“Every player is important in our squad, whether they are a starter or a substitute, or they don’t play often but give everything in training.”
Karim Benzema noted that finishing the season as the competition’s top scorer was “special,” given he has now won five Champions Leagues with Real.
“However, the most essential thing is to win the Champions League for the fifth time”, he noted.
In October, before this year’s World Cup in Qatar, the winner of the Ballon d’Or will be announced in a ceremony in Paris.
