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LONDON. — Karim Benzema vowed to end his career at Real Madrid after winning the 2022 Ballon d’Or on Monday night.
The striker was recognised for his efforts in helping Real win the Spanish La Liga football title and the Champions League crown, with the Frenchman notching 44 goals last season.
At 34-years-old he is the oldest winner of the award in 66 years and he has no plans to hang up his boots anytime soon.
The striker said he is happy at Real Madrid and is taking things year by year, and when the time is right he will decide to retire rather than join another club.
Benzema said: “I will retire in Real Madrid. There’s no other option for me.
“I have a contract with Real Madrid. I feel good currently. After that? I don’t know, because I am thinking year on year.
“If I feel good, I will continue in football, and if I do not feel good, we will see then. But right now I have two years of contract with Real Madrid.”
Often overlooked and criticised, Benzema has scored 328 goals for Los Blancos — since signing for around £35 million in 2009.
Before last season, he was an underrated cog in sides that won three La Liga titles and four Champions League trophies.
He often played second-fiddle to Cristiano Ronaldo — who was bought the same year from Manchester United.
The France star was instrumental in Real Madrid’s European triumph and was handed the annual prize at a swanky Paris ceremony ahead of Sadio Mane in second and third-placed Kevin De Bruyne on Monday night.
The award, based on a player’s individual achievements over a calendar year, comes after his outstanding performances in the knockout stages of the Champions League.
He scored an incredible 10 goals in seven games – including two hat-tricks — as Madrid pulled off one of the most dramatic and extraordinary wins in the competition’s history.
And it is an incredible turnaround on a personal level with the ace involved in a sex tape blackmail scandal which saw him exiled from the French team and was only settled last year.
After winning the award, and with boyhood hero Zinedine Zidane next to him, he told the cheering audience: “This prize in front of me makes me really proud.
“When I was small I never gave up. It was a childhood dream.
“I had two role models in my life. (Zinedine) Zidane and Ronaldo as well. I always had this dream in my mind that everything is possible.
“There was a difficult period where I wasn’t in the French team but I never stopped working hard. I never gave up. I always kept in my head this job of playing football.”
After his speech, the star invited his mum and son on stage to share the moment with him.
He was later joined by his American girlfriend Jordan Ozuna for the flight back to Madrid.
The stunning 32-year-old used to work as a Hooters waitress in Las Vegas by now works as a model in the US.
It was Benzema’s heroics in the Champions League that made him the overwhelming favourite for this year’s Ballon d’Or honour. — The SUN
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