As the newly anointed ‘World’s Best Men’s Footballer’ Karim Benzema took to the stage last night to collect the coveted Ballon d’Or award, eagle-eyed football fans would have noticed that something was missing.
No, it wasn’t the fact that the French international was wearing an outfit that payed homage to his musical icon Tupac, but instead it was that the two little fingers on his right hand were not wrapped in a bandage.
The 34-year-old striker was the outstanding candidate to win football’s top individual prize this year, thanks to his even more outstanding contributions on the field for Real Madrid this year, leading them to Champions League and La Liga glory – netting career-high 44 goals in just 46 appearances.
Due to the sheer number of goals Benzema scored, fans have become used to seeing him throwing up his bandage-wrapped hand during goal celebrations – something that he has done for the majority of last three seasons.
Clearly he has been wearing it too long to be nursing an injury, it has been claimed that the Frenchman wears the bandage due to superstition. However, while that might partly be true, the origin of his finger wrapping dates back to 2019 in a game against Spanish side Real Betis where he fractured his finger.
Originally, when he sustained the injury, he was told that surgery would rule him out of playing for two months, so Benzema opted to wait until the end of season for the operation.
Despite it being a success Benzema has continued to wrap his hand before every match as added protection for his finger.
In celebration his Ballon d’Or win, sports giant Adidas has released a new promotional film entitled Hand of Gold, dedicated to Benzema. The film shows Benzema’s hand bandage turn from white to gold, with a special limited-edition set of golden bandages available for purchase for die hard fans hoping to one day win their own Ballon d’Or.