Deschamps: Kylian Mbappe has had an exceptional season and deserves the Ballon d’Or

 

Didier Deschamps, coach of the French national team, confirmed that Karim Benzema deserves to win the award for the best player in the world, presented by France Football magazine, at the ceremony to be held in the French capital, Paris, at nine o’clock this evening, presented by the magazine “France Football” annually.

 

“Karim Benzema has had an exceptional year, and it would be great to win the Ballon d’Or tonight,” Deschamps said, in statements to “On Time Sport” while attending the award ceremony.

 

Deschamps added: “Karim Benzema’s winning of the award will not only be a special event for him, but it will be for professional and amateur players, even children and youth, so we wish him to win the title.”

 

The award for the best player in the world always grabs most of the attention and spotlight at this ceremony, while the event will witness the presentation of other awards, including the Golden Ball award for the best player in the world, the Cuba award for the best young player and the Yashin award for the best goalkeeper.

 

Also, for the first time in the award’s history, the evaluation will not be based on the players’ performance and achievements over the course of the calendar year, but will be based on what they provided during the last football season 2021-2022.

 

This year, the award is witnessing a major surprise in the absence of Argentine star Lionel Messi from the list of nominees for the first time in many years, specifically since he was chosen among the list of nominees for the award for the first time in the 2026 edition.

 

Messi had won it last year to be the seventh time he crowned this award, achieving an exciting record as the most recipients throughout his career so far, and only Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, who won the Golden Ball 5 previous times, the last of which is close to the achievement of the flea in 2017.

 

Several media and press reports indicate that the French Karim Benzema will be the most likely to win the award this time, in light of the exceptional season he presented with Real Madrid last season and his well-deserved victory with the Spanish League and European Champions League titles and his top scorer in both competitions.

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