Karim Benzema stays the course to emerge as a Real Madrid legend

Sir Alex Ferguson was left dejected. In the summer of 2009, Karim Benzema left Lyon, his home club, not for Manchester United but Real Madrid. Ferguson, the famed Manchester United manager, had wanted to sign the then 20-year-old Benzema, who reminded him of Zinedine Zidane. Not because he was also French but “in the way that he uses his body and the drive he had when the ball was at his feet.” Criano Ronaldo was leaving Manchester United and Benzema had the potential to fill the void.
Benzema must have a thing against the Premier League. 14 years later, Todd Boehly would bite his words. The Chelsea owner had made a bold prediction ahead of the Champions League quarter-final tie against Madrid in the Spanish capital. “Have faith, we’re going to win 3-0 tonight.” 21 minutes into the game, it was the now 35-year-old Benzema celebrating in front of the Santiago Bernabeu crowd. It was Dani Carvajal’s chip pass that cut through Chelsea’s defensive lines before Vunicius forced Kepa Arrizabalaga into a save. All Benzema did was to be at the right place at the right time, and roll the ball in. The 11th consecutive goal in the competition against an English side.
However, it wasn’t all roses and sunshine for the Frenchman back in 2009 when he joined the nine-time record Champions League winners. Taking over as Madrid’s sports director, Zinedine Zidane didn’t mince words when it came to his fellow countrymen’s need to reduce weight. Jose Mourinho was publicly critical of a goal drought.

“If I can’t hunt with a dog, I will hunt with a cat,” the Real Madrid manager blurted out when asked about the same. Compounded with it all was the obvious. Benzema wasn’t Madrid’s main man. At Lyon, he had garnered that reputation. In Madrid, he contested for the centre slot in a three-man attack with Gonzalo Higuain. Criano Ronaldo would remain the star for 292 goalscoring reasons. A €100.8 million transfer market-shaking move of Gareth Bale didn’t help. Neither did a sex-tape scandal involving France teammate Mathieu Valbuena. Benzema wasn’t Madrid’s poster boy. Despite a significant involvement in four Champions League winning campaigns.
It took a step back from the club for him to stride forward. The departure of both Ronaldo and Zidane as head coach in the summer of 2018. Gareth Bale was already more out of the squad than in. Benzema became the automatic choice of attack up front. The increment in his touches in the attacking third shows the same. According to FBref, the numbers have improved. From 592 in the 2017/18 La Liga season to 828 in the next. 918, 837, and 942 in the three that have followed. Not just a receiver, Benzema became a reliable carrier of the ball as well. His progressive carrying dance (in yards) upped from 1,654 in 2017/18 to 2583, 2704, 2603 and 2440 in the subsequent seasons.
From Zidane to Julen Lopetegui to Santiago Solari and back to Zidane, Benzema evolved. From an additional attacking outlet to the attacking outlet, showing tricks of the trade to future galacticos of the white glitterati. Vinicius Jr, Rodrygo and Fede Valverde. The Bernabeu was being refurbished, so was the team. And then came Carlo Ancelotti, a Ballon D’or, and ‘that’ Champions League season. It is essential to win one of those if you are to pen your name in Los Blancos hory. Benzema went for a fifth. A 15-goal season, 10 of which came in the knockouts. Hattrick against PSG to nullify a 2-0 aggregate deficit. Another one against Chelsea at the Stamford Bridge before he decided the tie with an extra time decider at the Bernabeu. A brace in a 4-3 loss at the Etihad to City, before he wrapped an even crazier extra-time dealbreaker in Madrid.
Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema celebrates after scoring his side’s fourth goal during the Spanish Copa del Rey semifinal, second leg soccer match between Barcelona and Real Madrid at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, April 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Pouncing headers, nutmegging toe pokes, wrong-footed volley, precisional and audacious penalties, the Madrid number nine had weaved some of the most eye-pleasing goals in one of the craziest Champions League winning crusades. All through the knockouts, the eventual winners led for less than 21 percent of the entire time from Round of 16 to the final.
The obscure amount of heat in his heatmap from the last season as opposed to the 2017/18 one is depictive of the hot entity Benzema has become for Madrid. A constant savior. As he was, last week at the Camp Nou to turn a Copa Del Rey 1-0 lead in Barcelona’s favor, to a 4-1 aggregate win for Real Madrid. In the 80th minute as he stood, arms flung wide following a third goal, Benzema became the first Real Madrid player to score a Clasico hat-trick at Camp Nou since Ferenc Puskas in 1963. The home fans started vacating the colossus of a stadium even before the full time whle. It was sufficiently evident what Sir Alex Ferguson saw in the scorer all those years ago.