Man City winning team award named ‘biggest scandal’ in furious rant

Real Madrid forward Karim Benzema wins Ballon d’Or for first time

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The decision to name Manchester City as the Club of the Year at the Ballon d’Or award ceremony on Monday has been slammed as one of the event’s biggest ever scandals. The defending Premier League champions managed to beat the likes of Real Madrid and Bayern Munich to pick up the prize, which was introduced last year and is awarded to the team with the highest number of individual Ballon d’Or nominees.

City saw a total of seven players named on the shortlist for the men’s and women’s awards, with Riyad Mahrez, Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva, Joao Cancelo, Lucy Bronze, and Ederson all among the nominees. However, their status as Club of the Year has since been questioned by certain sections of the Spanish media, with outspoken journalist Josep Pedrerol launching into a furious rant on the topic during Monday’s edition of popular football talk show El Chiringuito.

“Man City winning the team of the year is the biggest scandal in the Ballon d’Or,” fumed Pedrerol. “It’s a strong claim, no? A strong claim for them to beat Real Madrid, who had a fantastic team who created history.

“People say the kids want to play like City do. It seems the director of France Football was annoyed with Florentino Perez. Maybe they’re inventing prizes to anger Madrid. Anyway… I’m getting angry.”

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City were crowned Premier League winners for the second year in a row last season but were knocked out of the Champions League by Real Madrid, who completed an astonishing semi-final comeback before going on to defeat Liverpool in the final. Los Blancos midfielder Toni Kroos joined Pedrerol in expressing his surprise at the Club of the Year result on Monday, with the German maestro tweeting: “3rd best team in 2021/22 – happy @realmadrid?”

The only previous winners of the Club of the Year award were Chelsea, who scooped the prize after their Champions League triumph over City in last season’s final. Glory on the biggest European stage has evaded City throughout the entirety of their 142-year history, although they will be hoping to break their duck at the very next time of asking with the addition of Erling Haaland to their star-studded line-up.

City CEO Ferran Soriano spoke of his pride at picking up the prize at Monday’s ceremony, which also saw Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema become the oldest winner of the Ballon d’Or since 1956, when it was awarded to Sir Stanley Matthews.

“This is a proud day for Manchester City, to be named Club of the Year is an honour and further underlines the strength of this club across both men’s and women’s football,” said Soriano.

“We pride ourselves on playing beautiful football and winning matches. We are proud of the quality of the players and all the staff behind the scenes who help make us successful. This award is recognition of the hard work and dedication found in every department of our organisation.”

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