On January 15, 2005, Karim Benzema made his debut for Olympique de Lyon in a match against Metz (2-0). The newspaper Le Parisien wanted to recall the first steps of the Real Madrid striker, who 17 years later has become one of the best strikers in the world thanks to his undoubted quality on the pitch.
“We came on at the same minute (77). Karim and I have known each other for a long time, so I said a few words to him before going out on the pitch, just to tell him to enjoy the moment. I was happy to be by his side on his debut after all these years together. And in his debut, he gave me the assist for 2-0. He managed to save the ball from the touch line, made a kind of mini hat on his defender and put a very good ball on me that allowed me to move forward and shoot. Just in this action, getting to do that on one of his first balls in Ligue 1, shows all the technical quality he had,” recalls Bryan Bergougnoux, Karim’s former teammate at Lyon.
“The player I see today has the same intentions: to play first and foremost for the team. Karim is a striker who has never played with the obsession of showing off or scoring goals, but above all of being the most effective for the team. I have immense respect for all the work he has done,” adds Bergougnoux. For Yvex Colleu, the deputy coach of Olympique de Lyon, Benzema’s talent was unquestionable and he stressed that making a 17-year-old player debut in a team that was champion of France for three consecutive seasons shows that the player was “out of the ordinary “In terms of quality.
Mehdi Meniri, Karim Benzema’s rival that night in 2005, remembers what it was like to face the striker: “Before this match, we had heard about him because he was exploding in the youth ranks. Then we had been sold so many new French football stars and the new Zidane that we didn’t really know what to expect. Let’s just say he was the up-and-coming young man who came in with his small status. Later, at that time, Benzema was not your main concern when you played against Lyon of Juninho, Essien or Govou. It was a war machine, especially in the center, and it was going a thousand miles an hour ahead. In my memory, he did not make a sensational debut. The idea was to mark it so as not to leave too much space for it. In one of his first actions, I gave him a small blow in a duel. Nothing too serious, just to show that he was there. Later, he made me a hat before assisting the goal.”