Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema has won the 2022 Ballon d'Or award after a sensational season with the Spanish giants. The French forward was influential in helping Madrid win the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Super Cup, La Liga and Spanish Super Cup last term.
The 34-year-old is the oldest player to win the prestigious award since Stanley Matthews and has scored 328 goals in 615 appearances for Madrid. Whilst the French forward has firmly written his name into European folklore - and looks likely to continue to do so - the same cannot quite be said of Arsenal.
The Gunners have not featured in the Champions League since 2017 and the 2021/22 campaign saw them narrowly miss out on a return to club football's elite competition at the expense of their fierce rivals Tottenham.
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Mikel Arteta currently has Arsenal going strong both domestically and in Europe as they sit top of their Europa League group and top of the Premier League by four points. It was reported way back in 2018 that the French forward was on his way out of Real Madrid and had agreed a switch with then boss Arsene Wenger.
The only problem was that the Gunners had not agreed a fee with Los Blancos. Speaking last year, Wenger confirmed that he had attempted to take his compatriot to the Emirates Stadium.
He said: "Yes, because he was in competition with Higuain for a while. It was Higuain for three games, three games for Benzema.
"He played the game based on passing and connections, so he was an ideal player up front. He’s a striker who makes people around him better and sometimes you have strikers who score goals but they make players around them worse. He’s not one of them. If you put Benzema in the team, I would want to play with him."
As it happens, a switch never materialised, with Benzema electing to remain in Spain and Arsenal not signing a striker. They did eventually invest heavily in their frontline with the signing of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and whilst the Gabonese was arguably a success in north London, it could have been argued that Benzema would certainly have been a better addition, considering his continued stunning performances and longevity for Real Madrid over the past decade.
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