It’s a small game without consequences to occupy those rare moments of national pride. Now that Benzema can pose with this thousand times deserved Golden Ball, where to place him in the list of the best players of all time without getting into insoluble generation quarrels? Obviously in the top 5, of course, ahead of players like Thierry Henry, Franck Ribéry, Jean Tigana, Antoine Griezmann, sometimes on the podium, but never in first place? But necessarily behind Platini, Zizou, Kopa, or Papin, his predecessors? 20 minutes launches into this debate sliding head first
The weight of the Golden Ball: Advantage Platini, despite everything?
All Golden Balls are not equal in the long term, and the importance that can be attributed to them in the short term either. Evidence recalled by Platoche himself at the microphone of RMC, Tuesday evening. After paying a strong tribute to his distant successor, “a remarkable player in his interpretation of the game”, the thrilling number 10 of the fifties of France and Navarre stopped on the dimension taken by this individual trophy compared to his time. .
“In my old age, when I walk around and people want me to sign an autograph, the kids don’t know me. When you tell them that I have won three Ballon d’Ors, they open their eyes wide like that. The Ballon d’Or has become very important in today’s youth, more than in our time. Today, you win a Golden Ball and you enter the elite of great footballers. »
Platini touches a sensitive point: without even mentioning a much less noisy media repercussion, Ballons d’Or awarded before 1995, those which only concerned European players, cannot sit at the same table as those of the 2000s, due to the increased competition between candidates and the rise of individual statistics in the analysis of the game. How to compare the Golden Ball won from Kopa thanks to 16 voters all from Western Europe or almost, to that of KB9 in 2022? Impossible.
Nevertheless, it is also necessary to escape the reverse bias. Benzema and Zidane’s Ballons d’Or are worth no more than Platini’s by decree. Moreover, a received idea often suggests that Maradona would have pecked at least one or two soundtracks to the tricolor playmaker with the current regulations: a deep dive into the 1980s invites us to revise this judgment. The Argentinian idol would have won in 86 and 87, but never before. Purists will say that the immense Socrates could have won in 83 as much for the title of Corinthians as for the political commitment of its captain, but it is not for nothing that we waited until 2022 to invent a price of fair play. So far, voters had nothing to do with the good works of each other.
The weight of the prize list: Zidane unplayable thanks to the Blues
Let’s start with the bare facts. Benzema, by his longevity at the highest level in the biggest club in the world, his statistical impact and the number of Champions League in the trophy cabinet, is far above all the others, whether we like it or nope. As a reminder, at 35, the age of KB9 in a month, Platini had made his departure party a long time ago (he was even coach of the Blues), Zizou had just put away his crampons, after two last seasons in the club chopped by the injuries and ellipses, and Papin, to mention, had returned home for one last tank ride at the Girondins.
Benzema’s Achilles’ heel in this unpretentious little contest? The French team, of course. At the very top Zidane, 98 world champion and 2000 European champion, just below Platini, the great architect of the victory of the Blues at Euro 84, the first in the history of the Blues. KB9 cannot fight, he who has gone through three final stages without glory in selection, even if the start of the 2014 World Cup has for a time diffused the scent of great adventures. Even Papin did better, with a semi-final in 86, even if the Marseille striker had watched his friends from the bench all along.
However, there is another way of looking at it: we can consider that the extra-sporting twists that we know have “deprived” Benzema of two final stages in the French team, coincidentally the most prolific since 2006. If this is only to say that the absentees are always wrong, can it be judged by the yardstick of an international career amputated by five full years, the best in the recent history of the tricolor selection?
The weight of the symbol: Benzema far behind, really?
“The People’s Golden Ball”, just that. Karim Benzema may have succeeded in attaching a mystical – but not political – character to his reward, it will be very difficult for him to match his two elders on the purely symbolic aspect. Once again, the France team weighs heavily in the balance. It will be necessary to put things flat one last time in the event of a miraculous third star in Qatar, but for now, Karim is above all a legend in Madrid. There is merit in having returned to the sweat of his brow in the hearts of the French, after having been ostracized, but the delay in the Valbuena affair seems frankly irretrievable.
Michel Platini, for his part, experienced the opposite path. An untouchable figure in his heyday, emblematic leader of the first victorious blue generation, he saw his image erode on the bench of the France team, before taking a final blow in the face with corruption cases in FIFA. Should we separate the man from the artist? You have four hours.
For Zizou, it’s more linear. A live anecdote from the Théâtre du Châtelet to testify to the enormous sympathy that the man still enjoys, sixteen years after his retirement. Upon his arrival on site, the double Z was applauded as much as the star of the evening, which is to say how irreplaceable he seems in people’s hearts. After all, Zidane is the man of the first star, the only double, the one whose portrait was broadcast on the Arc de Triomphe. Above him ? General de Gaulle at the liberation, at most.
The weight of actions that we will see again in thirty years: Zizou, again and again
Of the importance of having been the first. Will Benzema’s panenka against Manchester City be otherwise remembered as the perfect replica of Zidane’s in 2006? The observation is cruel, especially since that of Karim is better executed and the moment barely less crucial (2-4 at the Etihad, he remained on two missed penalties). But the facts are there, the best action of his career is one of his idol’s signature moves – even if we gladly make room for his number along the line against Atlético. Its European epic in 2022 is, on the other hand, unique in its kind. Who can boast of having eliminated alone or almost three teams in a few fractions of minutes?
To caricature, Benzema laid the complete Rougon-Macquart in six months, but his predecessors had a knack for dressing up on big nights. Of Michel Platini, we will remember of this free kick against the Netherlands in 1981, synonymous with qualification for the 1982 World Cup and all the rest. From the winning goal in extra time against Portugal, during the fabulous semi-final of Euro 1984, punctuated, of course, by a much luckier free kick in front of Arconada. In 1985, it was also he who offered victory in C1 to Juve, at Heysel, in a final where football will remain secondary. We could go on, but we’ll leave that to Wikipedia.
Zinédine Zidane was ultimately a clever mix of the two. Between the total epic and the YouTube compilation of a match. His games against Brazil sum that up nicely. In 1998, his two headers were practically the only feats of his World Cup, but worth gold. In 2006, his masterclass was the culmination of a brilliant German campaign, a swan song still unequalled. He also shone where Platini did, in the half of the Euro against Portugal (Euro 2000) and on Karim’s hunting ground: his goal against Leverkusen with Real in the C1 final is regularly cited among the finest in history. “Everyone has their favorite player, concludes ZZ, not a fan of the label of greatest Frenchman that we stick to him. Some will tell you it’s Papin with his exceptional goals, others will talk about Michel Platini. For me it’s Karim, because I’ve worked with him, I know what he’s worth. If Zinedine says so.