MY ACCOUNT
Carlo Ancelotti was not put out by Manchester City being named the team of the year in Monday’s Ballon d’Or ceremony, saying last season’s Champions League glory is proof of Real Madrid’s standing.
Madrid finished third in the votes for the team award, despite winning LaLiga and the Champions League last season.
Liverpool finished as runners-up behind City, as they did in the Premier League. The Reds also lost to Madrid in the Champions League final, but won the EFL Cup and FA Cup last term. Indeed, Los Blancos also beat Pep Guardiola’s side en route to winning their 14th European crown.
Ancelotti, though, insists Madrid – who won the Super Cup in August and are top of LaLiga after defeating Barcelona in Sunday’s Clasico – are still the best.
He said in a press conference: “I don’t know the criteria well, because they don’t talk about the team. Madrid is the best team and that is why they have won the Champions League.
“I have all the respect for that award. We received the most important award in May.”
Madrid did enjoy success on Monday, though, with Karim Benzema taking home the main individual prize after his stunning season in 2021-22, becoming the first French player to do so since Zinedine Zidane in 1998.
Benzema, 34, led Madrid to their success, which came somewhat against the odds – at least in the Champions League.
However, when asked if had been surprised by his achievements since re-joining Madrid from Everton last year, Ancelotti replied: “No, I don’t think so. What we have achieved so far has been very good.
“For me it is not so surprising, here you have everything to be successful: history, tradition, competition, quality of the players, atmosphere… At the beginning of last season I had many more doubts than now.”
Benzema scored 44 times last season, a tally bettered only by Robert Lewandowski (50) of players in Europe’s top-five leagues.
Next on the list after Benzema was Kylian Mbappe, who scored 39 goals for Paris Saint-Germain and appeared all set to join his France team-mate at Madrid until a late change of heart.
Reports last week claimed Mbappe now wanted to leave PSG, though he denied those rumours on Monday.
Asked if Mbappe would deserve another chance to sign for the club, Ancelotti instead chose to hail the next generation already coming through at the Santiago Bernabeu.
“What is the future? I do not know. On a personal level, I don’t know what can happen,” he said.
“The future of this club and this team is already written with young players like Vinicius [Junior], Rodrygo, [Aurelien] Tchouameni, [Eduardo] Camavinga, [Federico[ Valverde, [Eder] Militao… who have already written the future of this team.
“The players change, but these players have shown what the future of Real Madrid will be.”
