When Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema finally wins his first Ballon d'Or, as he surely must in 2022, I sincerely hope that his first words are... "I have to thank Vinicius Jose Paixao de Oliveira Junior."
Right now, Benzema is playing the most beautiful football of any player in any major league, and he's been doing so since the beginning of the 2021-22 season. It's not simply about the vast flood of goals he's scoring during the most prolific few months of his entire career. It's not even simply about the fact that he has taken Real Madrid's capacity to be the all-time, comeback "don't you dare write us off" kings of European football and added extra tungsten-tough unbeatability thanks to a string of improbable, admirable and unexpected goals.