France and Real Madrid striker, Karim Benzema emerged as the winner of the 66th edition of the Balloon d’or.
Benzema was announced winner ahead of Sadio Mane of Bayer Munich, Kevin De Bruyne of Manchester City and Robert Lewandoski of Barcelona and Poland respectively.
This is the first time Benzema is winning it in his career and he became the 5th Frenchman to win it and the 1st after Zinedane Zidane in 1998.
Meanwhile, Senegalese Sadio Mane won the Socrates Award, Thibaut Courtois carted away the Yashin award while Barcelona’s Gavi won the Kopa trophy.
Lewandoski won the Gerd Muller award while Alexia Pulletas was the winnwr for the Ballon d’Or for the female category. Pulletas defends the award she won last year.
English side, Manchester City won the Club of the Year.