“My life has changed…”

Karim Benzema comes on stage. The Frenchman signs up for this Sunday's derby after being in doubt about his physical problems, but before, this Saturday, he is the protagonist on the cover of the magazine 'ICON' of El País. It is a Benzema with an open heart. The Real Madrid forward talks about his childhood, his family, his arrival in Madrid and his maturity as a person and a footballer, of his fatherhood.

Does money bring happiness? “Nobody agrees. Money makes many things easier, but it doesn't take millions to be happy. When I was little, I had nothing at all. But he was happy. I could stay a whole day kicking it against the wall and the garage of my house. I was a child who lived only for football ”.

Friendship: “I only have one friend. Which shows that friendship is very important to me. “

His father: “I was demanding, but thanks to that I have a mentality of steel. Of course, I am grateful to you. If today I am who I am, it is because of that education “

Arrival to Madrid: “I was only 21 years old, I was alone and my family could not accompany me. I used to spend all my time with them, so my beginnings were difficult ”.

Social media: “Social networks allow me to be close to my fans. And to the people who love me I have to show them, from time to time, something more than football. That is why I sometimes post photographs with my children. I am a father, I have wonderful children and my life has changed. I don't think about what will become of me in ten years. The main thing is that my children are happy ”.

Character: “It is not true that nothing affects me. I have feelings, but I will never show my weaknesses, even if I have them. When I'm bad I keep it to myself ”.

Zidane: “He's an older brother to me. Off the pitch, he is always there to advise me ”.

Cristiano's March: “The only thing I would say is that Cristiano's departure allowed me to play a different role. He was scoring 50 or 60 goals a year and you had to adapt to his game. He is one of the best in the world and I was happy by his side ”.

Valbuena case: “In a race there are always ups and downs and that was a very low point. But every human being faces challenges. Mine are big, but I have enough back and psychological capacity to fit them. I am not giving up ”.

Fans of cars and music: “Who doesn't like cars and music? Right now I'm listening to Big Ben, a boy from my neighborhood. I haven't listened to American rap for a long time, but, I don't know, his sneakers are cool and I wear them.”

Picture: “Why do you want to worry about your image if you are the way you are? You have to like yourself, if you wait for people to tell you that they like you, you didn't understand anything “.

Pandemic: “I hope we get out of this chaos soon. We don't like to play without an audience, but we've gotten used to it. As we love football, we are happy just playing ”