Benzema, the nine with a soul of ten that is already a legend

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Ahead of its time. That has been Benzema for much of his career. And a misunderstood. There was always a debate as to his position. Nine, nine and a half, or ten? But the truth is that today, Benzema represents the perfect striker, the one who is capable of scoring, assisting, and associating with those above. The Van Basten, Muller, Van Nistelrooy, Klose, Shevchenko, Hugo Sánchez, Batistuta or Crespo, nine cigars or battering rams, are the past. Even the last two great scorers in football, Cristiano and Messi, are not new to use. “Karim is spoken of as a pure nine, a nine and a half, a ten … For me it is a bit of everything. I would define him as the total soccer player, ”Zidane synthesized in this new soccer in which few coaches play with a single striker, and much less static.

Benzema himself joined the debate on how to label his football elegant and fine, but now also effective. “I am a nine with a soul of ten”, he came to specify the madridista in January 2019. And the truth is that since Cristiano left, he has taken a firm step towards the opposite door. The Portuguese left Madrid in the summer of 2018. Since then, Benzema has been scoring 30% or more of the team’s goals: 30%, 27%, 34%, 33% season after season. It is evident that with Cristiano in Madrid, Karim ended up playing for the Portuguese and sacrificing his personal numbers. During those nine years he only scored 13% of the team’s goals.

Benzema’s explosion has been confirmed this season, In which he has been in the pools of possible winner of the Ballon d’Or, until the end, along with Messi and Lewandowski. Ended up being fourth, behind Messi, Lewandowski and Jorginho, but all four were actually within a handful of points. The French forward was cautious on Twitter when the votes were known: “Thanks to everyone who supports me, I play soccer for you and the show must go on.“But it was something more forceful on Instagram, where he shared several messages, two of them revealing. One of them is from his partner Lunin, who crossed out the France Football poster with the 4 (from the fourth position) and wrote a 1. The other, from the user ‘champagneeppapi’ and the phrase “Game for people who know about soccer“.

Benzema’s 2021 is being spectacular. With 44 goals, he is the fifth best scorer of the calendar year, only behind Lewandowski (he has left with 66), Mbappé and Haaland (47) and Cristiano (45). It is evidence that he already eats at the table of the best and, as Ancelotti says, “it improves with the years, like good wine”. It has been twelve seasons since Florentino went to sign the Frenchman in person at his home in the suburb of Lyon, the Bron Terraillon. The BBC that he formed with Cristiano and Bale is mythical and marked part of Madrid’s history. Together they managed to lift four Champions League. Now, Benzema is also being fundamental in this transitional stage in which he understands perfectly with Vinicius. And they both wait for Mbappé to arrive. Starting next season they will launch a new era … and soon a new stadium.

In general recognition of Benzema’s football, it includes what happened in his country, where Deschamps was forced to give up and re-include him in his calls. Since then, he is the undisputed starter and has scored 9 goals in 13 games for Les Bleus.. The only title that endorsed him in that section for the Ballon d’Or was, precisely, the Nations League, which he won by facing Luis Enrique’s Spain in the final, in which he also scored to change the inertia of the match.

Benzema is not only a legend in Madrid, he is also a legend in France despite those six years of absence with Les Bleus due to the Valbuena case. He is the French player who has scored the most goals for his professional clubs in the history of the country. Carry 362 between Real Madrid (296) and Lyon (66). He recently surpassed (in the League match against Sevilla) the 360 goals scored by Thierry Henry during his time at Monaco, Juventus, Arsenal, Barcelona and the New York Red Bulls.

Benzema has thus left behind all the great scorers of the neighboring country: Platini (313 goals), Papin (292), Fontaine (258), Griezmann (226, still active), Cantona (165) .. . In the national team, the top scorer is still Henry, with 51 goals, although Benzema has 36 and he is the fifth on the list, having been separated from France for six years due to the Valbuena Case.

The sweet moment in Benzema’s career is not by chance. For him, it all comes down to one word. Job. At the beginning of the 2016-17 season, the French player decided to change his working method. He was already in his thirties and wanted to prolong his career at the best of levels. And he has succeeded. One of its secrets was revolutionary. He made famous the electrostimulation vest (‘Bolt Method’), with which he toned and strengthened his muscles with small electric shocks that, in turn, made him lose weight and abdominal fat. The vest became fashionable and many athletes began to incorporate it into their particular work dynamics. But, in addition, he changed his usual Instagram photos surrounded by luxury for others of hard and continuous training. Today Karim is arguably a workaholic.

Benzema also hired the services of a nutritionist, chef Alberto Mastromatteo De Villa, who specializes in home delivery and who achieved fame for a seminar offered at the Complutense University on plant microbiology that was highly valued. Benzema used his services and has been with him ever since. Mastromatteo included algae, lots of fish, vegetables, coconut oil, and alkaline water in Karim’s diet.

All this has allowed Benzema to enlarge his figure in Madrid. So much so that He is already the eighth player with the most games in the white entity (579) and the foreigner who has played the most. It is also the fourth best historical scorer of the entity (296) only behind Cristiano (451), Raúl (323) and Di Stéfano (308). In the highest club competition, the Champions League, few can overshadow him. Only Cristiano, Messi and Lewandowski (he is still in dispute with the Pole) have been able to do more goals than the 75 that he has achieved. It is not by chance that his name was inscribed in a historical moment, such as when Real Madrid he scored his goal in the European Cup, his work at the Bernabéu. It’s just a detail, but as Butragueño said recently … “Benzema is a legend.”