Karim Benzema: Thierry Henry's disbelief at Micah Richards' opinion of striker | OneFootball

Karim Benzema is the 2022 Ballon d’Or winner. And who can really argue with that?

The Frenchman helped Real Madrid win both La Liga and the Champions League, scoring 44 goals in 46 matches in the process.

It’s yet to be revealed quite how far Benzema’s triumph was over the likes of Sadio Mane (2nd) and Kevin De Bruyne (3rd) but we imagine it was a pretty comfortable victory for the 34-year-old.

At 34, Benzema became the oldest winner since the first recipient in 1956, Stanley Matthews.

While it's understandable why Benzema hasn't been able to pip Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo to the prize throughout his career, it's remarkable that it's taken so long for him to get the respect he deserves.

He may have finished fourth in the Ballon d'Or ranking last year but that was his first ever top 10 finish.

In fact before 2021, his best ranking was 17th in 2018.

And it may not have been until the 2021/22 season when football fans really started appreciating just how good Benzema is.

Benzema scored hat-tricks against Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea in the Champions League knockout rounds, before three goals over the two legs of their semi-final against Manchester City.

Richards has only just started rating Benzema

And it wasn't until that first hat-trick in the second leg against PSG, which saw Real Madrid win 3-1 to dump out the French side in the last-16, that a certain Micah Richards sat up and took notice.

On punditry duty after the game, Richards, in the company of Thierry Henry, admitted that he's only now starting to rate Benzema.

"But now, he's convinced me," Richards said when talking about Benzema.

Henry responded: "Just now?"

Richards added: "Of late, in the last six months. He's convinced that he's up there with Harry Kane and Robert Lewandowski."

Henry, who couldn't hide his shock, said: "Wow. Just tonight?!" To which Richards replied: "Last six months."

Take a look at the exchange below:

After picking up the Ballon d'Or trophy, Benzema thanked everyone for their help along the way. Noticeably, he didn't thank Richards for his support over the last six months...

"It makes me really proud," said Benzema. "All the work I did, I never gave up. It was a childhood dream like all kids [have]. I had two motivations in my life - Zidane and Ronaldo. I've always had this dream in my mind that anything is possible.

"There was a difficult period where I wasn't in the French team, but I never stopped working hard nor gave up. I always kept my head, concentrated on playing football and I'm really proud of my journey here. It wasn't easy, it was a difficult time. It was hard for my family as well. To be here today, for the first time for me, I'm happy and pleased with my work and I keep going.

"I want to thank my team-mates, whether it's Real Madrid or the national team. My coach, thanks to him as well. The Real Madrid president as well.