Sep 12, 20225 min read

Benzema, Lewandowski, And Others Take Wild 2022 By Storm (Part One)

Taking the two greatest footballers Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo out of the equation, there are a host of other footballers who have started the season explosively. From Benzema’s heroics to Lewandowski’s goal scoring form, today, we take a look at the outstanding superstars across several leagues in no particular order.

Karim Benzema

The French man finds himself at the top following the decline of demigods Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, earning accolades across the globe in that process.

Benzema was at his imperious best, as usual, topping the La Liga scoring charts while also registering 44 goals and 15 assists across all competitions.

Apart from his abundance of goals, Benzema deserves praise for his contribution to Real Madrid as well as his leadership qualities, title charge, and their most recent Champions League run. His hattricks against PSG n Chelsea saw them secure a berth in the semifinals and proceeded to score three across both legs before becoming eventual winners.

The four times french football of the year has had another sporadic start to the season scoring four goals in six appearances and the upcoming World Cup is probably the last chance for Benzema to lift a national trophy.

After his initial exile from the team following leaked tapes accusations, the striker gas returned to cement the striker role in a bid to win the only award that has eluded him in his career after conquering the French and the Spanish league. A victory in the competition will no doubt silence his critics and justify his claim as one of the best modern nines of all time.

Robert Lewandowski

As long as he’s around, he’ll continue to be up near the top of the list. Lewandowski is 34 years old, playing in Spain for only his first year, and still racking up absurd screamers in front of goal. So far this season, Lewandowski has contributed to six goals and two assists in five games while also scoring a hat trick in the champions league against Victoria Plzen.

He is currently challenging Real Madrid’s Karin Benzema for the Pichichi (La Liga top scorer) and is one of Barcelona’s star players in what looks to be a studded title-winning campaign.

Photo Courtesy Of USA Today Sports

Having won the Champions League with his former club Bayern Munchen, the polish attacker who forced his move out of the German Outfit is set to take on his former team in this season’s Champions League as he eyes a return back to CL glory. He registered 312 goals and 75 assists in 384 games in Germany, and he would be looking to replicate his fine form in Spain.

In 2021, Lewandowski was robbed off the Ballon D’or despite breaking Gerd Muller’s record of 40 league goals in the german top flight and also netted 60 times across all competitions- the first to do so since Lionel Messi and Christiano Ronaldo. The pole is however, on track to claim the spot of the world’s best footballer.

Neymar

Neymar Da Silva and his teammate, Lionel Messi provide Paris Saint Germain with a dynamism that few clubs can match.

He can be whatever he wants to be – everything is open to him. He’s quick, skillful and excels one-on-one. He has everything.”Lionel Messi, Paris forward

“I like Neymar a lot. He is a bit like me. Can he be Messi’s heir? Yes, he has everything he needs to become as strong as him.”-Cristiano Ronaldo, Manchester United forward

“People see him doing tricks and dribbles and think he is only trying to enjoy himself, that he’s selfish and only thinks about himself. But when you share a dressing room with him you realize that it’s not the case. He’s a very kind person; he is interested in others.”-Kylian Mbappé, Paris forward

Those are words of affirmation from some of football’s finest confirming Neymar’s wizardry. The Brazilian is able to slot in at any position across the attack and even drop back to reclaim possession for his team with 145 defensive possession wins this calendar year. Neymar, in 2022, has averaged 26 appearances, 24 starts, 2,116 minutes (23.5 90s), 24 goals, and 12 assists.

As a typical Brazilian, he has completed 91 successful take-on, created 80 chances, and 23 big chances. Neymar is a modern all-round attacker who can beat a player with a bit of wizardry, split a defense open with one pass in behind, and can take it all the way and score it himself.

He however, had an underwhelming previous season which led to his omission from the 2022 Ballon D’or nominees but Neymar appears to be unfazed by the recent snub and is in a confident mood this season.

Erling Haaland

Manchester City has bought a lot of players in the past few years, but the purchase of Norwegian Striker, Haaland, could steer them to their first ever champions league glory.

The Big Man is a goal-scoring genius. He’s scored everywhere he has taken the field-Norway, Austria, Germany, and now England. The English top flight has been touted as the most muscular and competitive league in the world but it just seems as though Haaland was built for the Premier League.

He brings the muscular, hard-working best of football and combines it with the sublime chances created by Kevin Debruyne, and What you get is a bulldog on the pitch.

Haaland’s skillset of pace, clinical finishing, and unparalleled movement are set to make him the best forward in the Premier League this season scoring ten goals in six appearances. He also scored on his champions league debut with the PL title defenders making it the third time after previous scoring debuts with Salzburg and Dortmund.

The football world gives him a decent argument for World best player within his age bracket with Kylian Mbappe the closest to dispute the statement.

Kylian Mbappe

The world cup winner has had a controversial start to the start of season including training ground arguments and on-the-field lackluster displays which has been subject to criticism.

However, these exploits aren’t enough to write off his explosive start to the season under new manager Christophe Galtier. Mbappe just like Haaland combines pace, trickery, dribbling and composure in front of the goal to keep his name amongst the elites in Europe.

This season, playing with chief orchestrator and footballing Legend Lionel Messi, he has provided multiple goal-scoring chances to the french international allowing him to rack up nine goals in seven appearances across all competitions.

Current Paris Saint Germain manager, Christophe Galtier, is tasked with ensuring peace within the dressing room as lack of teamwork has cost them on several occasions in previous seasons.

Shortly into the season Mbappe attempted to take a penalty off the Brazilian despite initially missing his spot-kick in that match, he also refused to square the ball in a counter-attack which left him and Neymar two-on-one against the keeper as he shot into the side netting. On another occasion, Mbappe was seen sulking after Messi opted to pass to Neymar in a swift counter-attack much to criticism from everyone across the globe.

Galtier has however, in an interview, expressed his delight at the sanity and peace observed in the dressing room and assured the fans everything was in order.

“The relationship between Ney and Kylian is very good and I don’t speak about it. They are together in the [training] exercises, often during the warm-ups. There was a situation in a game. I spoke about it with Kylian yesterday and I think they talked about it together.” “I am convinced that he will give some assists to Ney. I have not felt any particular type of tension since then.”- Galtier said.

Mbappe is on the quest to earn PSG their first Europeans trophy triumph while also looking ahead to defending France’s world cup trophy against fellow teammates countries Neymar, Brazil, and Lionel Messi, Argentina.

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