French President Emmanuel Macron has congratulated his compatriot Karim Benzema, the Real Madrid striker, for winning the Ballon d’Or. The French striker won the Ballon d’Or award for the first time in his history, beating 29 players, most notably: Senegalese Sadio Mane, Belgium’s Kevin De Bruyne, Poland’s Robert Lewandowski, and Egypt’s Mohamed Salah. Macron wrote in his tweet (KB9), referring to the first two letters of Karim Benzema’s name and the shirt number he wears with Real Madrid. Macron added in another tweet: “Two letters and a number will go down in the history of football, 24 years following (win) Zidane, Karim Benzema succeeded in bringing a new golden ball to France, congratulations to him.” Benzema became the first Frenchman to win the Ballon d’Or since Zidane, who won the award in 1998. And the fifth Frenchman to achieve this feat following Raymond Kopa (1958), Michel Platini (1983, 1984, 1985), Jean-Pierre Papin (1991) and Zidane (1998). .
