The World Cup lost the Golden Ball – Newspaper Kommersant No. 215 (7416) dated 11/21/2022

For the first time in four and a half decades, the winner of the main individual award in world football will not play at the World Cup. Frenchman Karim Benzema, who received the Ballon d’Or in October, dropped out of the French national team’s squad on the eve of the start of the Qatari championship due to a hip injury. Benzema has joined a huge list of players who will not go to him due to various injuries. And it was the French, the current world champions, who suffered the greatest losses. They missed almost half of the base.

Misfortune with Karim Benzema happened on Saturday at the training session of the French national team, which will play its first match in the group stage of the World Cup in Qatar on Tuesday against the Australians. Occupation Benzema left, visibly limping. And an examination conducted at a hospital in Doha confirmed that the striker suffered serious damage to the thigh muscles, or rather aggravated damage that was already known. Since mid-October, Benzema has hardly played for his club Real Madrid due to problems with his leg. The treatment and recovery of the football player, according to doctors, should take about three weeks. Thus, the participation of Karim Benzema in the World Cup is excluded. Instead, the coach of the French national team that won the previous championship, which was hosted by Russia in 2018, Didier Deschamps has already included Manchester United striker Anthony Martial in the application.

The absence of Karim Benzema is a big blow to the entire Qatari championship. He lost one of the brightest stars, and judging solely by formal signs, then simply the brightest star without any reservations. The fact is that it was Benzema who won the Ballon d’Or a month ago, the most valuable individual award in football, which was presented to him, noting the feats accomplished at Real Madrid in various tournaments, and primarily in the Champions League won by Madrid. Meanwhile, the last time the current owner of the Golden Ball was absent from the number one football competition was a very long time ago. In 1978, the then rather weak Danish team did not make it to the Argentine World Cup, and with it its leader Allan Simonsen.

However, the state of emergency with Karim Benzema fits into the overall picture. Postponing the current World Cup from summer to the end of the year due to the specifics of the hot Qatari climate, the International Football Federation (FIFA) probably counted on a positive side effect from such a shift. This championship for the first time takes place not after the end of the exhausting club season, but in the middle of it, that is, at the moment when the form of players from the leading leagues, in theory, should be close to peak. However, the effect turned out to be the opposite.

Of the famous football players, like Benzema, who flew past the World Cup due to injuries, you can now make up a whole team that would be able to compete in Qatar for gold medals. In it, for example, the Germans Timo Werner and Marco Reus, the British Rees James and Ben Chilwell, the Portuguese Diogo Jota, the Spaniard Kepa Arrizabalaga, the Mexican Jesus Corona and the Senegalese Sadio Mane would find themselves. Moreover, some of them, like Manet, dropped out already at the final stage of preparation for the championship. And this is not counting those players whom the coaches risked to include in the squad, despite the poor condition. And there are many of them too.

But even against this background, the case of the French team looks extraordinary. Even before the announcement of the application, it turned out that Paul Pogba and Ngolo Kante, as well as defender Presnel Kimpembe, would not be able to go to the World Cup. Since the triumphant 2018, Pogba and Kante have remained a key tandem for the French in the middle of the field, and in the role of players covering the most important support zone, they, in fact, had no alternative. Kimpembe, apparently, could well take a place in the center of the national team’s defense – especially since its leader Rafael Varane also experienced health problems in November. And a few days ago, Christopher Nkunku disappeared from the application. This young striker also had excellent chances to either find himself at the base of the team, or at least regularly come on as a substitute to strengthen the game. At the end of the last season, Nkunka, who plays for Leipzig, was recognized as the strongest player in the German championship. And without these players, the French team is completely different from the favorite of the tournament.

Alexey Dospekhov