Ronaldo was dropped from the Best Team of 2022
In the 4-4-2 formation announced on December 24, Mbappe and Karim Benzema were paired in the forward line. Mbappe has a successful year at both club and national level, with a total of 55 goals. The 24-year-old striker scored a hat-trick in the 2022 World Cup final against Argentina, won the Golden Shoe for top scorer with 8 goals, and won Ligue 1 with PSG.
Benzema played unsuccessfully at the team level, when he was in conflict with coach Didier Deschamps and many teammates and did not attend the 2022 World Cup. However, he shone at the club level when he won the treble - the Spanish Super Cup. , La Liga, Champions League - to win the Ballon d'Or for the first time. In total, Benzema scored 31 goals in the past 12 months.
Another French player in L'Équipe's typical squad is Theo Hernandez. The 25-year-old defender is a key factor with AC Milan to win the Serie A for the first time in 11 years, and at the same time quench the thirst for the title lasting 1976, since defeating Juventus in the Italian Super Cup match on December 23, 2016. . At the 2022 World Cup, Theo was sure to start when his brother Lucas Hernandez was seriously injured in the opening leg, creating 11 scoring opportunities and giving two assists - the best achievement among defenders.
Messi is ranked as the right midfielder in L'Équipe's squad. The Argentine star spent an unsuccessful debut season with PSG, but played explosively from the beginning of the season with 12 goals and 14 assists in 19 matches in all competitions. By the 2022 World Cup, he scored 7 goals, including a brace in the final, helping Argentina win the Gold Cup for the third time. The 35-year-old striker was also awarded the FIFA World Cup Golden Ball - the award for the best player in the tournament at Qatar 2022, and won the best player award five times.
L'Équipe honored four Premier League stars, Kevin de Bruyne, Kyle Walker, Casemiro and Virgil van Dijk. In particular, De Bruyne and Walker and Man City defended the English Premier League throne, 1 point more than Van Dijk's Liverpool. Casemiro was chosen thanks to his impressive form in the Real shirt last season. Two former teammates of the Brazilian player, midfielder Luka Modric and goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois were also present.
The remaining position in L'Équipe's squad belongs to Josko Gvardiol. At the 2022 World Cup, the 20-year-old midfielder cleared the ball (37) and pulled the ball forward (202) the most in the tournament, and won possession more often than any other defender (48 times). With this performance, many teams bid 100 million USD to recruit the Croatian midfielder in January 2023. Gvardiol has a contract with Leipzig until the summer of 2027 and has no release clause.
Cristiano Ronaldo did not appear when he fell from the beginning of the season. At Man Utd, the Portuguese striker lost his starting position and scored only three goals, including one in the Premier League and two in the Europa League. At the 2022 World Cup, Ronaldo scored only one goal - a penalty kick in the opening match against Ghana. The 37-year-old striker lost his starting place when Portugal beat Switzerland 6-1 in the round of 16 and lost 0-1 to Morocco in the quarterfinals.
L'Équipe is the most prestigious sports newspaper in France, born in 1946, specializing in reporting on football, rugby, tennis, cycling... According to Statista data in 2021, this is the newspaper. Sports has the largest circulation in France, with 214,062 copies per day, and ranks third in the general press after Le Monde (445,894) and Le Figaro (347,088). Similarweb website estimates that the number of visits to the electronic version of L'Équipe reached 46.9 million in June 2022. In 2017, this newspaper's revenue was about 160 million euros (more than 3,700 billion).
