The most prestigious individual award in football, the Ballon d’Or, will have its 67th edition on Monday, 17th October, which is nearly two months earlier than the usual date of the ceremony. That’s because of the upcoming World Cup in Qatar, so France Football decided to go with mid-October.

This year, three players from the UCL finalists, Real Madrid and Liverpool, are favourites to win the award, but following a memorable season for the Galacticos, Karim Benzema is clear, according to the bookmakers. Let’s see what are the odds and predictions for the top 8 favorites on netti-kasino.org.

Benzema carried Real Madrid to a double

Real Madrid won both LaLiga and Champions League, and they have to thank Karim Benzema for that. The Frenchman scored astonishing 44 goals in 46 games in all competitions in the 2021-22 campaign for Los Galacticos, including memorable hat-tricks in the UCL knockout stage against Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea. Benzema finished fourth in a race for the last year’s Ballon d’Or, but now only a miracle could stop him from winning the award. The five-time UCL winner, Benzema was often underappreciated at Santiago Bernabeu as he was in the shadows of Cristiano Ronaldo and other high-profile players at the club. This is Benzema’s year.

Salah to lose another final

Mohamed Salah dominated in the Premier League once again by winning the Premier League Golden Boot for the third time, though he shared the award with Son Heung-min. The Egyptian did lose the playoff for the World Cup to his teammate Sadio Mane, while he also lost to Senegal in the AFCON final. Atop of that, Salah didn’t get his revenge against Real Madrid in the Champions League final and fell a point short to Manchester City in PL. After finishing 7th in Ballon d’Or 2021, Salah will definitely climb up on the list this time around. But, it’s going to be hard for him to become the second African recipient of the award since George Weah in 1955.

Mane to leave with a bang

Sadio Mane is apparently leaving Liverpool this summer, with Bayern Munich emerging as the biggest favourites to land the Senegalese forward. Mane won it all with Liverpool in his career at Anfield, including an FA Cup and Carabao Cup this season. However, what’s more important, Mane won the AFCON with Senegal and also the Africa Cup of Nations Player of the Tournament award. The 30-year-old winger is selected to the PFA Team of the Year for the fourth time in his career, but failing to win the Premier League and Champions League this year is not going to do him any favours in a battle for Ballon d’Or in October.

De Bruyne led Manchester City to a back-to-back PL title

Kevin De Bruyne crowned his strong campaign with the Premier League Player of the Season award, after leading Manchester City to the second PL title in two years. The odds on the Belgian playmaker to win Ballon d’Or are not great because of City’s inability to win the Champions League, even though they were agonizingly close but were left empty-handed in the semi-final against Real Madrid. Maybe the next season will be De Bruyne’s.

Mbappe is the King of Paris

Kylian Mbappe was in impressive form for Paris Saint-Germain (39 goals in 46 games in all competitions) and won the domestic title. But playing in Ligue 1, where competition is not fierce as in Spain, Italy or England is hurting his chances for Ballon d’Or. Well, winning the Champions League would help his cause, but that will not happen until the next season. Hence, the 23-year-old superstar will have to wait a bit longer.

Lewandowski is not that close this year

Last year, Robert Lewandowski was one of the two biggest favourites to win the Ballon d’Or, but he finished second behind Lionel Messi. This time around, Lewy is lower on the list despite scoring more goals than he had games (50 in 46) in 2021-22. Lewandowski decided to leave Bayern Munich this summer, and if he goes to Barcelona and helps Blaugrana in LaLiga and UCL quests next season, the Polish striker will have better chances.

Ronaldo and Messi’s agenda is slowly fading out

Over the last 13-15 years, it was impossible not to even start a conversation about Ballon d’Or without mentioning Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. That’s natural considering two of them won 12 awards combined (out of 13), with only Luka Modric managing to snap that domination in 2018, while Ballon d’Or in 2020 was cancelled because of Covid-19. Messi won it back in 2021 to make it 7-5 against Ronaldo and that will hardly ever be beaten.

They are clearly out of the race in 2022; Messi after a miserable debut campaign for Paris Saint-Germain in which he scored only 11 goals in 34 games. Ronaldo enjoyed better times in his return to Old Trafford with 24 goals in 38 games, but it’s evident that two of the best footballers ever began to fade. So as their chances of winning the Ballon d’Or.

Courtesy: besoccer.com