{"id":1257067,"date":"2022-04-13T18:46:06","date_gmt":"2022-04-13T17:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1257067"},"modified":"2022-04-13T18:53:43","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T17:53:43","slug":"ronaldo-ballon-dor-pick","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/ronaldo-ballon-dor-pick\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronaldo: &#8216;They criticised me for years for saying he should win the Ballon d&#8217;Or&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Two-time World Cup winner Ronaldo has backed his long-time pick Karim Benzema to win this year&#8217;s Ballon d&#8217;Or award.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The 34-year-old Real Madrid forward is enjoying his strongest campaign in front of goal. Heading into the final weeks of the 2021\/22 season Benzema has bagged 24 goals across 27 matches in Spain&#8217;s top division which equals his best ever return.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/bet\/news\/ballon-dor-latest-odds\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ballon d&#8217;Or 2022 Odds: Robert Lewandowski early favourite for award<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Consequently, he&#8217;s leading the Pichichi race to be crowned as La Liga&#8217;s top scorer, elsewhere in European competition the Frenchman reached double figures something he&#8217;s never managed before when playing Champions League football.<\/p>\n<p>Only &#8216;golden ball&#8217; rival Robert Lewandowski and S\u00e9bastien Haller have registered more strikes though Benzemais still active with Bayern Munich and Ajax already eliminated. After registering a hat-trick in the quarter-final opening leg against Chelsea, his second consecutive treble, Benzema broke Blues hearts when he scored the decisive go-ahead goal in extra time.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2><strong>Kwiff betting offer: Bet \u00a310 Get \u00a320<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Eligible readers interested in the Kwiff betting offer can follow <a href=\"http:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/go\/kwiff-com?q=uk-all-con-bag-s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>THIS LINK<\/strong><\/a> or click the image below<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/go\/kwiff-com?q=uk-all-cso-bag-s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1256928 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2022\/04\/12194034\/1256927_1256927_Screenshot-2022-04-12-at-19.35-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2276\" height=\"1328\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2022\/04\/12194034\/1256927_1256927_Screenshot-2022-04-12-at-19.35-copy.jpg 2276w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2022\/04\/12194034\/1256927_1256927_Screenshot-2022-04-12-at-19.35-copy-300x175.jpg 300w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2022\/04\/12194034\/1256927_1256927_Screenshot-2022-04-12-at-19.35-copy-1024x597.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2022\/04\/12194034\/1256927_1256927_Screenshot-2022-04-12-at-19.35-copy-768x448.jpg 768w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2022\/04\/12194034\/1256927_1256927_Screenshot-2022-04-12-at-19.35-copy-110x64.jpg 110w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2022\/04\/12194034\/1256927_1256927_Screenshot-2022-04-12-at-19.35-copy-120x70.jpg 120w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2022\/04\/12194034\/1256927_1256927_Screenshot-2022-04-12-at-19.35-copy-66x39.jpg 66w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2022\/04\/12194034\/1256927_1256927_Screenshot-2022-04-12-at-19.35-copy-80x47.jpg 80w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2022\/04\/12194034\/1256927_1256927_Screenshot-2022-04-12-at-19.35-copy-180x105.jpg 180w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2022\/04\/12194034\/1256927_1256927_Screenshot-2022-04-12-at-19.35-copy-380x222.jpg 380w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2022\/04\/12194034\/1256927_1256927_Screenshot-2022-04-12-at-19.35-copy-1028x600.jpg 1028w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2022\/04\/12194034\/1256927_1256927_Screenshot-2022-04-12-at-19.35-copy-240x140.jpg 240w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2022\/04\/12194034\/1256927_1256927_Screenshot-2022-04-12-at-19.35-copy-1100x642.jpg 1100w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2022\/04\/12194034\/1256927_1256927_Screenshot-2022-04-12-at-19.35-copy-85x50.jpg 85w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2022\/04\/12194034\/1256927_1256927_Screenshot-2022-04-12-at-19.35-copy-34x20.jpg 34w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2022\/04\/12194034\/1256927_1256927_Screenshot-2022-04-12-at-19.35-copy-330x193.jpg 330w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2276px) 100vw, 2276px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>New Customers Only. The Promotion operates as a \u00a320 Surprise Bet when you place a bet of at least \u00a310 on any market with odds greater than or equal to 1.50 as your first bet. The Promotion runs from 29\/12\/2021 12:00 (UTC) until 31\/12\/2022 12:00 (UTC) (the \u201cPromotional Period\u201d). 18+ only. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gambleaware.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Be Gamble Aware<\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Having now bagged seven goals across his last three Champions League appearances Benzema has inserted himself into the Ballon d&#8217;Or spotlight. For the first time in many years neither Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are heavy favourites.<\/p>\n<p>However, even when they were tipped for the prize former recipient Ronaldo has nominated his Real predecessor as a contender, something which led to derision, but now the former Brazil great believes he&#8217;s been vindicated.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/champions-league-outright-odds-21-22\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Champions League winner odds: Outright comparisons after Real Madrid and Villarreal confirm semi-final spots<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;Benzema deserves the Ballon d&#8217;Or, I&#8217;ve been saying it for years and getting criticised,&#8221; he told Sky Sports Italia.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But he deserves it, he&#8217;s a great forward.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Benzema has been previously nominated nine times and came in fourth in 2021 finishing behind Messi, Lewandowski and Jorginho.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/sky-vegas-free-spins-welcome-offer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sky Vegas welcome offer<\/a><span>\u00a0<\/span>(50 free spins and no deposit required)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/bet\/football-live-streaming\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Live stream today\u2019s football<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/bet\/football-tips\/accumulator\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Football accumulator tips<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two-time World Cup winner Ronaldo has backed his long-time pick Karim Benzema to win this year&#8217;s Ballon d&#8217;Or award. The 34-year-old Real Madrid forward is enjoying his strongest campaign in front of goal. Heading into the final weeks of the 2021\/22 season Benzema has bagged 24 goals across 27 matches in Spain&#8217;s top division which&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":1257068,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"Ronaldo: They criticised me for years for saying he should win the Ballon d'Or","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"news-category":[],"class_list":["post-1257067","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"external_featured_image_url":"","hide_featured_image_pattern":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ronaldo: They criticised me for years for saying he should win the Ballon d&#039;Or<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/ronaldo-ballon-dor-pick\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ronaldo: &#039;They criticised me for years for saying he should win the Ballon d&#039;Or&#039;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Two-time World Cup winner Ronaldo has backed his long-time pick Karim Benzema to win this year&#8217;s Ballon d&#8217;Or award. 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