Ancelotti: “I don’t know the criteria well, but the best team in 2022 was Real”

Karim Benzema and Thibaut Courtois gave Real the lead at the 66th Ballon d’Or ceremony on Monday night in Paris, with the French striker winning the Ballon d’Or for player of the year and the Belgian goalkeeper accepting the award. Lev Yasin” as the best goalkeeper.

Still, the event left a bittersweet aftertaste for the Merengues in the final as they remained in 3rd place in the Team of the Year vote despite being champions of Spain and Europe, with Manchester City and Liverpool picking up more votes .

“When Manchester City won the Best Club Trophy, we looked at each other and laughed.” said, among other things, the – obviously angry – Courtois, although the Madrilenians made their anger about Carlo Ancelotti public.

“Manchester City best team of 2022 and Real third according to Ballon d’Or voting? I don’t know the criteria well but the best team was Real who won the Champions League.

Talking about it seems disrespectful to a team that did well last year and worked hard to beat these opponents.

We made it through small details”emphasized “Carleto” at his press conference on Tuesday (18.10.) before the league game against Elche, adding meaningfully:

“Nothing changes for us, with all due respect to this award, the most important thing is that we won it last May.”

On Karim Benzema’s Ballon d’Or win he said: “He’s a player with a lot of responsibility who feels much more of a leader in this team than he did eight years ago.

From a technical point of view, nothing has changed since the quality is the same as before. What has changed is his behavior and sense of responsibility, he is more than a leader.”

It is noted that Real Madrid themselves tweeted their question about City winning the award, while according to Spanish media there was also dissatisfaction with the fact that Vinicius and Modric finished 8th at the Ballon d’Or awards. and 9th place respectively were the highlight of the year, with the merengues playing their defining role in the highly successful season that preceded it.