Karim Benzema wins Onze d’Or

French magazine Onze Mondial has awarded Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema their Onze d’Or player of the year award for the 2020 - 2021 season. The award is voted on by the magazine’s readers, who overwhelmingly voted in Benzema’s favour. Benzema, who has scored 29 goals so far this season, received 47.3% of the votes, ahead of Lional Messi (20.1%) and Robert Lewandowski (11.3%).

“I’ve been waiting for a long time to return (to the French national team),” Benzema told Onze Mondial after receiving the award. “I’ve always worked and I’ve never given up.

“I really want to be with the French team, to train and to play matches because it’s a team with a lot of talent. I want to play for them.”

This has been quite the week for Benzema, who has not only won this award, but has been called up to the French National Team just in time for the Euros. (Our own Kiyan Sobhani and Lucas Navarrete discussed his fit alongside Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann here.)

“I’ve been going up, up and up,” Benzema continued. “I don’t like to say that I’m better at something than others, but I try to be inventive on the pitch.”