This is the French Karim Benzema, Real Madrid striker, architect of more than one title -such as the 2018 Champions League against Liverpool-, who according to a list leaked on social networks doubled his closest rival for the Ballon d’Or in votes.
On the list, they are followed by Sadio Mané, Vinicius Junior, Mohamed Salah, Robert Lewandowski, Kylian Mbappé and Kevin de Bruyne. The sensation player of the moment, the Norwegian Erling Haaland, was in 11th place.
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According to the publication, the Real Madrid striker would obtain a total of 521 votes, compared to 298 for the second, from the current Bayern Munich player.
When is the 2022 Ballon d’Or awarded?
The delivery ceremony of Ballon d’Or 2022 will be held on Monday October 17at the Châtelet Theater in Paris.
Messi’s absence from the Ballon d’Or
To the surprise of the world, Lionel Messi is not on the list, as confirmed weeks ago. This is the first time that has happened since 2005. Since then, the captain of the Argentine national team has won 7 Ballon d’Ors, the most he has accumulated in history.
The scandals of Karim Benzema
Karim Benzema was the protagonist of some scandals that marginalized him from the French team. For the so-called “sextape”, the court of Versailles set a prison sentence of more than 10 months requested by the prosecution during the trial, and also a fine requested by the public ministry: 75,000 euros (87,000 dollars).
Although the outbreak of the “sextape” scandal took him away from the french team until his return on the eve of the European Championship disputed in the middle of last year, the sentence seems that it did not take its sports toll.
How did the blackmail unfold?
The events date back to October 6, 2015 and its protagonist is midfielder Mathieu Valbuena.
It all starts with Axel Angot and Mustapha Zouaoui, two men who move in the world of professional football and whom the investigators consider the instigators of the blackmail plot.
The first, which deals with the computer equipment of several players, comes across an intimate video of Mathieu Valbuena, when the latter entrusts him with his cell phone to transfer data.
Angot keeps the recording and tells his friend Zouaoui, famous in Marseille for supplying luxury accessories to footballers.
They both see it as an opportunity to take advantage and, to do so, they turn to an acquaintance, Younes Houass, who has contacts in the football world.
The latter calls Mathieu Valbuena on June 3, 2015, in full concentration of the French team, to tell him about the video, but without asking for financial compensation.
However, the player was already aware of the existence of this “sextape” through former international Djibril Cissé, who a month earlier described the few images he could see.
After Houass’s call, Valbuena understands where the video is coming from and decides to alert the police, who mobilize an agent to pose as an intermediary.
This is the famous “Lukas”, whose role the defense lawyers denounce for, in their opinion, inciting the protagonists of the case to commit a crime.
He is the one who “initiates, contacts again and proposes” a deal every time, according to Serge Money, attorney for Mustapha Zouaoui.
After a series of judicial twists, the Court of Cassation validated the investigation in December 2019.
Younes Houass assures for his part that he never wanted to ask for money, but simply wanted to “do a favor” to build a “reputation” in the world of football.
The appearance of Karim Benzema
During this time, thanks to wiretaps, the investigators intercept a conversation between Zouaoui and an anonymous caller, who promises to send someone to talk to Mathieu Valbuena.
The cops then warn the player that an accomplice of the suspected criminals will contact him. Valbuena does not know then that Zouaoui’s anonymous interlocutor is Karim Zenati, a childhood friend of Benzema.
Realizing that discussions were deadlocked between “Lukas” and Younes Houass, the blackmailers decided to go through another intermediary to reach Mathieu Valbuena.
Karim Benzema tells him about the video to help him, in his own words, to “manage” this difficulty, during a concentration of the French team on October 6, 2015.
Mathieu Valbuena then discovers “that the one he considered his friend was in cahoots with those who blackmailed him,” according to his lawyer, Paul-Albert Iweins.
On November 4, Benzema was arrested and charged a day later with “complicity in an attempted blackmail” and “participation in a criminal association”, although this second charge will eventually be dropped.
His childhood friend Karim Zenati, who had already been sentenced by the justice system on several occasions in the past, remained in preventive detention for three months.
Three weeks earlier, Zouaoui, Angot and Houass are also charged and placed in preventive detention.
Although Djibril Cissé will also later be charged with “complicity in an attempted blackmail”, the only charge against him will eventually be dropped.
After the scandal, the French coach Didier Deschamps stopped calling Benzema to Valbuena, who missed the 2018 World Cup, in which the French team became champion.
Source: Ambito
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