When Real Madrid started the 2021/22 season, they were by no means anyone's favourites to win the Champions League come May, and were largely unfancied in La Liga against an Atletico Madrid side which had strengthened their league-winning squad with Antoine Griezmann and Rodrigo De Paul.
Indeed, Real Madrid's team seemed a far cry from the imperious beast which won three Champions League trophies in as many years from 2016 to 2018. Cristiano Ronaldo was already long gone, joined in the summer of 2021 by Sergio Ramos and Raphael Varane. Marcelo and Gareth Bale, meanwhile, were stuck on the bench, Carlo Ancelotti opting for fresher, hungrier players.
Fast forward to May 2022, and Los Blancos were winning their 13th Champions League trophy, with Karim Benzema having just performed the most outstanding season of his life.
A change in format of the Ballon d'Or means that tonight's award relates to the 2021/22 season, which started on August 1, 2021 and ended on July 31, 2022. Karim Benzema is, unquestionably, the leading contender to win the 2022 Ballon d'Or.
Over the course of 12 months the Frenchman picked up award after award, both individually and with club and country, his talismanic performances making it impossible to see anyone else standing with the golden ball in Paris at the end of tonight.
Kicking off the season by winning the Nations League last October against Spain, Benzema scored in the final to highlight 2021/22 was going to be his year. The year he finally announced his status as Europe's most elite striker after years in the shadows behind his more highly revered Real Madrid team-mates. While he spent years out of the national team set-up, he is now a key member of the France squad ahead of the World Cup.
On the way to becoming a Champions League and La Liga double winner, Benzema picked up the UEFA Men's Player of the Year, won the inaugural Champions League Player of the Season, was named La Liga Player of the Season and also topped the goalscoring charts in both the Champions League and La Liga.
Finishing the La Liga season with 27 goals in 32 games earned him the Pichichi Trophy. However, it was in the Champions League where he really saved his most talismanic performances.
In 12 Champions League games, Benzema scored 15 goals. He broke PSG hearts with a 17-minute hat-trick in the second leg of the last 16 - becoming the oldest player to have scored a Champions League hat-trick in the process, before becoming only the second player ever, after Cristiano Ronaldo, to score back-to-back hat-tricks in successive Champions League knockout matches when he bagged three away at Chelsea in the quarter-finals.
Three goals over the semi-final tie against Manchester City sent Real to the final and, while he didn't manage to score in Paris against Liverpool, he still displayed the qualities as to why he should be crowned Ballon d'Or 2022 winner.
Alongside numerous other awards, 2021/22 was also a season of record-breaking for Benzema.
He became the highest French goalscorer in club football matches against Sevilla in November, when he netted his 361st strike to surpass Thierry Henry. He also moved up to third on the list of Real Madrid all-time scorers, behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Raul - he has since overtaken Raul on the list.
Benzema does have competition for the award, although none can claim they deserve it more than him.
Robert Lewandowski enjoyed a fine goalscoring season, granted. 35 goals in the Bundesliga and 13 in the Champions League certainly isn't something to be sniffed at, but he failed to inspire Bayern beyond the quarter-finals in the Champions League, or even past the second round in the DFB-Pokal.
Cristiano Ronaldo produced moments of magic back at Manchester United, but didn't manage to affect games in the way he once did while at the peak of his powers. Mo Salah once again impressed with Liverpool, but losing the African Cup of Nations with Egypt in February saw a slight drop off in form.
Meanwhile, Lionel Messi hasn't even been nominated for the award.
Quite simply, no other player came close to matching Karim Benzema last season.
