Ballon d'Or 2022 LIVE - Karim Benzema wins Ballon d'Or, Sadio Mane second

Karim Benzema has won the Ballon d'Or, becoming only the fifth Frenchman to do so and at 34 years old is the oldest winner since Stanley Matthews in 1956.

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo had won 12 of the last 13 Ballon d’Ors - with Real Madrid’s Luka Modric winning as the sole outlier in 2018 - but Messi was not even nominated for the 2022 award. Cristiano Ronaldo finished 20th this year.

Barcelona's Alexia Putellas grabbed the Ballon d'Or Feminin for the secone year running.

22:00 Macron celebrates Benzema win 21:50 - Tenth time's a charm

Karim Benzema won the Ballon d'Or on his tenth nomination. Don't give up!

21:40 - Awards round-up

Kopa Trophy - Gavi

Club of the Year - Manchester City

Socrates Award - Sadio Mane

Gerd Muller Trophy - Robert Lewandowski

Yashin Trophy - Thibaut Courtois

Ballon d'Or Feminin - Alexia Putellas

Ballon d'Or - Karim Benzema

21:30 - Putellas wins Ballon d'Or Feminin

Barcelona midfielder Alexia Putellas has won the Ballon d'Or Feminin for the second year in a row.

Arsenal strike Beth Mead finished in second while Chelsea's Sam Kerr came in third. Mead's Lionesses team-mates Millie Bright and Lucy Bronze finished 15th and 10th respectively.

21:20 - 'I never gave up' - Benzema

Karim Benzema has won the Ballon d'Or for the first time in his career.

The Frenchman becomes only the second player aside from Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to win the award since 2008. Benzema's Real Madrid team-mate Luka Modric won the prize in 2018.

Sadio Mane, who moved from Liverpool to Bayern Munich last summer, came second while Manchester City midfielder Kevin de Bruyne finished in third.

21:15 - Your top 25 best male footballers

=25: Joao Cancelo (Manchester City). Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich). Mike Maignan (AC Milan). Antonio Rudiger (Chelsea / Real Madrid). Darwin Nunez (Benfica - moved to Liverpool). Christopher Nkunku (RB Leipzig)

=22: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool). Phil Foden (Manchester City). Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)

21: Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur)

20: Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus / Manchester United)

=17: Luis Diaz (Porto / Liverpool). Dusan Vlahovic (Fiorentina / Juventus). Casemiro (Real Madrid - moved to Manchester United)

16: Virgil Van Dijk (Liverpool)

=14: Rafael Leao (AC Milan). Fabinho (Liverpool)

13: Sebastien Haller (Ajax / Dortmund)

12: Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City)

11: Son Heung-Min (Tottenham Hotspur)

10. Erling Haaland (Manchester City)

9. Luka Modric (Real Madrid)

8. Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid)

7. Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid)

6. Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain)

5. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)

4. Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich - moved to Barcelona)

3. Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City)

2. Sadio Mane (Liverpool - moved to Bayern Munich)

1. Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)

21:10 - Ballon d'Or top four

Sadio Mane takes second place, Kevin de Bruyne third and Robert Lewandowski fourth! But Benzema leads the lot! At 34, he's the oldest Ballon d'Or winner since Stanley Matthews in 1956.

21:00 - Benzema 'proud of journey'

"This makes me really proud, all the work I did, I never gave up," he says.

"I had two role models in my life, Zidane and Ronaldo as well. I always had this dream in my mind that everything's possible. There was a difficult period where I wasn't in the French team but I worked hard and never gave up, kept my head down and enjoyed playing football.

"I'm really proud of my journey here, it wasn't easy, it was difficult, for me and my family. To be here today, the first time for me. I am just really, really happy, thanks to my teammates, with Real Madrid and the national team."

20:56 - Benzema wins Ballon d'Or

The fifth Frenchman to win the Ballon d'Or, the first since Zinedine Zidane in 1998. Benzema wins it!

20:53 - The big prize

Sadio Mane, Karim Benzema, Kevin de Bruyne and Robert Lewandowski the finalists...

20:47 - Manchester City win Club of the Year

99 goals, a fourth Premier League title in five years, five Ballon d'Or winners in the men's side and one in the women's side.

20:40 - Club of the Year

In third place, Champions League and La Liga winners Real Madrid. In second place, Champions League and Premier League runners-up but FA and League Cup winners Liverpool.

20:33 - Courtois wins Yashin Trophy

Courtois helped Real Madrid to the Champions League and La Liga double last season. Well deserved.

'I want to firstly thank my teammates, the club Real Madrid, to be part of this amazing team," he says. "Last season was an amazing season for all of us, for me especially."

20:30 - Haller presents Yashin trophy

We've had the best striker, whose the best goalie then? The finalists are...Alisson Becker, Thibaut Courtois, Ederson, Edouard Mendy and Mike Maignan.

20:28 - Courtois, Mbappe, Salah

Real Madrid's Thibaut Courtois takes seventh place in this year's Ballon d'Or, with PSG's Kylian Mbappe taking 6th and Liverpool's Mohamed Salah grabbing 5th.

20:19 - Lewandowski wins Gerd Muller trophy

Lewandowski wins it again, the year he broke Muller's Bundesliga goalscoring record.

"Thank you to my ex teammates from Bayern Munich and my new teammates at Barcelona," he says. "I have to have my teammates looking for my runs behind the defenders, and it's not easy."

20:12 - The Gerd Muller trophy

The striker of the year! Another relatively new award named after legendary striker Gerd Muller, won last by Lewandowski.

20:05 - Beth Mead takes second, Kerr fourth 20:01 - Putellas wins women's Ballon d'Or

Barcelona's Alexia Putellas defends her crown and wins the women's Ballon d'Or!

"Without my team-mates this would not have been possible," she says. "I want to thank the staff and the coach and everyone involved at Barcelona."

20:00 - Women's Ballon d'Or

Bonmati, Mead, Kerr, Obedorf and Putellas are the top five nominees for the women's Ballon d'Or.

19:55 - Mane wins Socrates award

Sadio Mane takes the inaugural Socrates award! The Socrates Award goes to the best social initiative in the game and Mane gives plenty back, especially to his native Senegal.

19:48 - Haaland tenth, Modric ninth, Vinicius Junior eighth

Another taster of the top ten for you as they announce tenth, ninth and eighth.

Manchester City's Erling Haaland makes the top ten, I think he might be a bit further up the list next year...

2018 winner Luka Modric is next up in ninth, with his Real Madrid teammate, Vinicius Junior, in eighth.

19:44 - Gavi wins the Kopa Trophy

For the second year running, a young Barca star picks up the Kopa Trophy. Pedri hands the prize over to Gavi.

19:40 - The Kopa Trophy

First award of the night, the Kopa Trophy, is for the best Rookie of the season. It will be presented by Ronaldo and last season's winner Pedri.

Bellingham, Camavinga, Gavi, Mendes, Musiala are the nominees.

19:35 - Underway in Paris

We're treated to a rendition of Nessun Dorma while a montage plays out of former winners.

19:30 - Champion style 19:25 - Lewandowski 'not thinking about' Ballon d'Or chances

Barcelona striker Lewandowski once again looks set to miss out on the award, but he insists that he is un phased by whether he will or won't claim the prize one day.

"I don't think I think about what I could do. For me it's about working hard to show my best performance," he said.

"Football is always that you always have to be ready for something new. Now I have a new challenge, I'm ready for this first step.

"In the future I can work in a good way and I'm happy where I am."

19:15 - 'I think Benzema will win' - Ronaldo

Ronaldo, the Brazilian one, expects Karim Benzema to pick up the main prize tonight.

"I'm pretty sure Karim will win," said the former Real Madrid man.

"He played an amazing season last season. I think he deserves this prize. "I miss No. 9s to win this prize. Our position is very important in football and Karim expresses what it means to be a striker."

19:05 - 25th-11th

25 minutes until we're underway so here's a quick recap of the rankings so far.

=25: Joao Cancelo (Manchester City). Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich). Mike Maignan (AC Milan). Antonio Rudiger (Chelsea / Real Madrid). Darwin Nunez (Benfica - moved to Liverpool). Christopher Nkunku (RB Leipzig)

=22: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool). Phil Foden (Manchester City). Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)

21: Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur)

20: Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus / Manchester United)

=17: Luis Diaz (Porto / Liverpool). Dusan Vlahovic (Fiorentina / Juventus). Casemiro (Real Madrid - moved to Manchester United)

16: Virgil Van Dijk (Liverpool)

=14: Rafael Leao (AC Milan). Fabinho (Liverpool)

13: Sebastien Haller (Ajax / Dortmund)

12: Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City)

11: Son Heung-Min (Tottenham Hotspur)

18:55 - The stage is set 18:40 - Mane on the red carpet 18:30 - The De Bruynes arrive 18:20 - The stars arrive

Haller in the house.

18:05 - Spurs celebrate duo 17:55 - Son misses top ten spot

Tottenham's Son Heung-Min narrowly misses out on a spot in the top ten, but 11th isn't too shabby for 2020's Puskas award winner.

17:40 - Mahrez 12th

Manchester City's top goalscorer last season Riyad Mahrez is 12th! His fourth time nominated.

17:35 - Haller 13th

Ajax's Sebastian Haller squeezes into the top 15.

17:30 - Leao and Fabinho tie for 14th

Getting towards the business end of the list now.

Liverpool's Fabinho is in at 14th alongside AC Milan's Rafael Leao.

17:20 - The top prize

The most famous individual gong in sports.

17:10 - Van Dijk up next

Another Liverpool player in early as Virgil Van Dijk grabs 16th spot. A tough season so far for the Dutchman but fresh off a clean sheet against Manchester City.

17:05 - Another tie for 17th...

Liverpool's Luis Diaz, Juve's Dusan Vlahovic and Manchester United's Casemiro come in at 17th.

Any surprises so far? I think Kane has been hard done by...

16:55 - Ronaldo in at 20

Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo, a five-time winner of the top gong, is in at 20.

He's had an underwhelming year by his standards but still a pretty good year by anyone else's standards. An incredible 18th time he's made the shortlist.

16:40 - Kane 21st

No ties here, Tottenham's Harry Kane holds 21st spot all on his own. His fourth nomination for the award.

And with that ends England's involvement in the list.

16:35 - Trent, Silva and Foden tie

Next up, A Premier League trio tie for 22nd place.

Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold and Manchester City's Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva. A shame that voting closed before Foden's hat-trick against Manchester United a fortnight ago.

16:25 - In 25th place...

Here we go...Balon d'Or have started tweeting the official rankings in the build-up to this evening's ceremony.

And in 25th place...it's a tie!

We've got Manchester City's Joao Cancelo, Bayern' Munich's Joshua Kimmich, AC Milan goalie Mike Maignan, Real Madrid man Antonio Rudiger, Liverpool's pass-shy striker Darwin Nunez and RB Leipzig's gossip column regular Christopher Nkunku.

16:15: The final five

Before the official list is revealed, it's time for our top five predictions.

16:00: Benzema and Courtois arrive in Paris

The man everyone is talking about has arrived in Paris.

Real Madrid's Twitter account posted a couple of pictures showing Ballon d'Or favourite Karim Benzema and Yashin Trophy hopeful Thibaut Courtois touching down in the French capital.

Will they both have silverware to bring home tonight?

15:45: Haaland, Modric, Miedema and Renard in our top 10s

There are some big hitters included in the penultimate countdowns in our series, including Erling Haaland, 2018 winner Luka Modric, Vivianne Miedema and Wendie Renard.

15:30: Mahrez, Ronaldo, Son and Morgan all ranked

We continued our countdown in the Ballon d'Or and Ballon d'Or Feminin lists, ranking the men's players in places 15-11 and the women from 12-9.

15:00: Alexander-Arnold and Diaz make our top 25

Meanwhile two of England's Lioness heroines, Lucy Bronze and Millie Bright feature in our Ballon d'Or Féminin countdown from 16-13.

14:30: Barcelona's stars head for Paris

The Barcelona quartet of Alexia Putellas, Lucy Bronze and Fridolina Rolfo, Asisat Oshoala are all heading off to the French capital for tonight's ceremony.

Putellas is being widely tipped to retain her Ballon d'Or Féminin crown, but how high will Bronze finish?

She won The Best FIFA Women's Player award in 2020, but the Ballon d'Or has eluded her so far.

14:00: Muller leads calls for Lewandowski

Thomas Muller said he would pick Robert Lewandowski over Karim Benzema for this year's Ballon d'or.

Muller and Lewandowski were Bayern Munich team-mates for eight seasons before the Poland striker left for Barcelona last summer.

"I have to go for Lewandowski," Muller said.

Responding as to why two top European goalscorers are compared, he added: "But I know what you mean. Benzema had a very good season and is a very good player."

13:30: Gunners presence in Paris

Molly Hudson from The Times reports via Sky Sports that Vivianne Miedema, Beth Mead, Bukayo Saka and technical director Edu will be present at tonight's ceremony.

Saka has been nominated for the Kopa Trophy, which is awarded to the best performing player under the age of 21.

Meanwhile, Mead and Miedema have both been included in Ballon d'Or Féminin nominations.

The quartet will fly to the French capital on a private jet.

13:00: Our men's and women's Ballon d'Or predictions

Check out our 30-23 predictions in the men's category and 20-17 in the women's.

How many of these will prove to be correct?

12:30: Ballon d'or 2013 - When Franck Ribery felt 'robbed'

The Frenchman finished third, despite helping Bayern Munich to an historic Bundesliga, Champions League and DFB-Pokal treble.

The deadline for the vote in 2013 was originally November 15, but it was extended for the first time in the competition’s history by two weeks due to a lack of eligible voters. UEFA president Michel Platini joked that FIFA did it to "please" Ronaldo.

In this period, Ronaldo scored a spectacular hat-trick which secured qualification for Portugal to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

12:00: Who do you think will win the Ballon d'Or?

Make sure you get involved with the conversation on social media and have your say on who will win tonight's awards.

You can give us your predictions for the Ballon d'Or, Ballon d'Or Feminin, Kopa Trophy and the Yashin Trophy.

11:30: Background on the Ballon d'Or

There have been some slight changes this year, with the award given to the best player from the previous season.

This will be the criteria going forward, after it was traditionally presented to the best player over a 12-month period from January to December.

11:00: Some hugely-impressive Benzema stats

It feels a bit like a Karim Benzema blog at the moment, but it is hard to ignore the Frenchman's hugely-impressive stats.

• Benzema registered 44 goals and 15 assists in 46 appearances in all competitions for Madrid in 2021-22 and averaged a direct goal contribution every 66.42 minutes.
• The striker got either a goal or assist in 32 of the 46 club games he appeared in during 2021-22.
• He registered more direct goal contributions than Robert Lewandowski (57), Mohamed Salah (47), Erling Haaland (37) and Ciro Immobile (36) in 2021-22.
• The France international finished as the top scorer in La Liga, nine ahead of second-placed Iago Aspas. He was also second on the assists chart after Ousmane Dembele.

10:00: Podium stats ahead of tonight

Some interesting stats ahead of tonight's ceremony, showing the players with the highest number of podium finishes.

Unsurprisingly, Lionel Messi leads the way and is closely followed by Cristiano Ronaldo.

Meanwhile, some other iconic legends from yesteryear are also included.

09:30: Ballon d'Or winner 'leaked' by Spanish media

Aside from the Ballon d'Or, the Yashin Trophy and Kopa Trophy - awarded for the best performing goalkeeper and best performing player under 21 respectively, will also be announced.

Benzema's Real Madrid team-mate Thibaut Courtois is tipped to win the Yashin Trophy, while Barcelona's Gavi is expected to win the Kopa award.

It will be interesting to see if these 'leaks' prove to be correct!

09:00: 'A little bit also ours' - Ancelotti wants Benzema Ballon d'Or win

He said: "As I said yesterday, I saw him much better during training. Clearly his condition is going to improve every day.

"He played a good game, he scored a goal, he was important in the game. Tomorrow hopefully he can win the Ballon d'Or and we are going to congratulate him because a little bit of that Ballon is also ours."

08:30: Ronaldo set for first awards appearance in five years

Cristiano Ronaldo will attend tonight's ceremony in Paris, in what is set to be his first appearance at the gala for five years.

The 37-year-old has incredibly been on every 30-man Ballon d'Or shortlist since being first nominated in 2005.

There is little hope that Ronaldo win a sixth Golden Ball tonight, after failing to hit his previous stratospheric heights in an underperforming Manchester United side.

08:00: The day has arrived!

Happy Ballon d'Or day! Tonight we will find out the two winners of the respective men's and women's awards in what is arguably the most prestigious football ceremony of the year.

Karim Benzema is hotly tipped to claim the men's award following a stellar season with Real Madrid, while Sadio Mane, Robert Lewandowski, Mohamed Salah and Kevin De Bruyne are also among the top contenders.

The Ballon d’Or Feminin looks just as competitive, with Barcelona's Alexia Putellas the favourite to retain her prize, but Lioness heroine Beth Mead and Chelsea goal machine Sam Kerr may pip the Spaniard to top spot.

It's going to be fascinating to see what unfolds, and we will keep you posted with everything that goes on here.

Who has been nominated for the Ballon d'Or, the Ballon d'Or Feminin, the Kopa trophy and the Yashin trophy?

The nominees for the Ballon d'Or are as follows:

The nominees for the Ballon d'Or Féminin are:

The nominees for the Kopa Trophy are:

The nominees for the Yashin Trophy are:

How does the Ballon d’Or voting process work?

France Football, a highly respected football publication, created the shortlist of 30 contenders for this year’s Ballon d’Or with 20 names for the women’s award.

After that, 100 journalists from FIFA's top 100 nations will select their top five from the 30-man shortlist. The same process takes place with the women but with 50 journalists from different nations.

The players on each jury member’s list are awarded points, as follows:

If two or more players are tied on points, the number of first-place votes they received is used as a tie-breaker.

The three main criteria when the jury member is making their decisions are: Individual and collective performance from the previous season, a player’s class and their career.

Whoever gets the most points wins the award.