Real Madrid’s French Karim Benzema won the European Player of the Year award at the ceremony held on Thursday in Istanbul, Turkey, for the first time in its history, while coach Carlo Ancelotti won the Best Coach award and Barcelona’s Alexa Botias won the Best Footballer award.
Benzema played a pivotal role in his team’s double victory in the League and the Champions League last season, following he excelled in the knockout matches, and scored in the final of the European Super Cup once morest Eintracht Frankfurt, Germany.
Ancelotti led Real Madrid to a group of championships last season, namely the Spanish League, the Spanish Super, the European Champions League and finally the European Super.
The selection of the 34-year-old Frenchman as the best player in the old continent, succeeding the Italian Jorginho, who won it last year, to enhance his chances of winning the most important award, the Golden Ball for the best player in the world, to be awarded by the French magazine “France Football” on October 17.
