The 2022 Ballon d'Or was born, and French striker Benzema won this year's Ballon d'Or with a huge advantage and no suspense, becoming the fifth player in French history to win the Ballon d'Or, setting a record of 24 years. Benzema has also become the perfect choice for France's centre-forward, who will accompany the team to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and Benzema is hoping to make up for the regret of missing out on the World Cup in 2018. But as the defending champions, France face two major World Cup curses. 1st: In the 21st century, the defending World Cup champions cannot qualify from the group, except for Brazil; No. 2: The player who wins the Ballon d'Or cannot win the World Cup right away.
France won the World Cup in 2018 for the second time in history, but now this French team is not comparable to the French team four years ago, except for Mbappe's growth of 4 years, the French team has experienced a decline in performance in recent years, last year's European Championship, France was eliminated by Switzerland in the 1/8 final. Although the European zone of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers advanced to the first place in the group, it was forced to draw by Ukraine and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and then in the UEFA Nations League, the French team could not even qualify from the group, and almost finished at the bottom of the group.
The most important midfield position in the French squad, with both big players N'Golo Kante and Pogba missing out on Qatar with France due to injury, and the Real Madrid combination of Joan Armeni and Camavinga is a little younger. Compared with four years ago, Griezmann and Giroud have seriously declined in form, especially Griezmann was returned to Atletico Madrid by Barca this season, scoring only four goals and three assists in 14 appearances this season, and Giroud is also far from his peak. Benzawa's form exploded this season, but this season has declined, so France's form and quality are not the same as they were four years ago.
One of the two major curses facing the French team was opened by the French team, the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, the 1998 World Cup champions did not qualify in the group, thus opening the curse of the defending champions not being able to advance in the group stage. At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the 2006 World Cup winner Italy did not qualify for the group; 2014 World Cup in Brazil, 2010 World Cup winner Spain did not qualify from the group; 2018 World Cup in Russia, 2014 World Cup winner Germany was eliminated from the group; So will France break the spell this year?
Another spell is associated with the Ballon d'Or, since in the history of the Ballon d'Or, the country of the player who won the Ballon d'Or that year has never lifted the Cup of Hercules immediately after the ceremony. The winner of the 1997 Ballon d'Or was Ronaldo the Great, and then at the 1998 World Cup in France, Ronaldo was lost in the final, and France eventually won the World Cup. In 2001, Michael Owen won the Ballon d'Or, but England only reached the last eight at the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan. In 2005, Ronaldinho won the Ballon d'Or and Brazil reached the quarterfinals of the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
Ronaldo won the Ballon d'Or in both 2013 and 2017, but Portugal failed to reach the end in both the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and the 2018 World Cup in Russia. The 2022 Ballon d'Or winner is Benzema, so will France break the spell? Messi and Neymar have a chance to lead Argentina and Brazil to the World Cup title, and Brazil and Argentina are in the top two places in the World Cup winning odds.
In the history of the World Cup, only Brazil and Italy can defend the World Cup championship, Italy won the World Cup twice in 1934 and 1938, Brazil won two consecutive World Cups in 1958 and 1962, and in the 60 years since, no team has ever been able to successfully defend the title, so the 2022 Qatar World Cup France seems to be far from the championship, and the European team has won 4 consecutive World Cups, which is the longest consecutive European team in the history of the World Cup. The 2022 World Cup should be the turn of teams from other continents to win the championship.