Karim Benzema: the best Muslim player in history and his indelible legacy
Wearing the '9' at Real Madrid is one of the most complicated tasks in the world of football. The most emblematic dorsal at the club that is even more so. The weight of being obliged to excellence, the guarantee that the bearer of that number is obliged to be one of the best players on the planet. And Benzema is, and always has been, no matter how much his detractors would like to overshadow what has been a glorious career in Real Madrid's most successful era.
Karim Benzema arrived in the Spanish capital as a promising youngster. In the shadow of the signings of Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka in one of the most prolific summers of the Florentino era (it's early days), the player they began nicknaming 'the cat' evolved to become, not the player that was expected, but the player that his team needed. And all this despite a complicated start, in which competition with Higuaín relegated him to the bench on numerous occasions, but which, in the end, as would also happen with Álvaro Morata, ended in victory for the Frenchman.
An absolute and indisputable victory. Benzema has announced his departure from Madrid as the second highest goalscorer in history with 354 goals. Only surpassed by Cristiano Ronaldo who, with his 451 goals, is light years ahead of any mortal. The striker who is now Real Madrid history is leaving for Saudi Arabia with a legacy behind him that has left no one indifferent. Although there were many critics of the striker, there was one man who always trusted him, who knew he was the perfect striker for the ideal team. Florentino Pérez was aware of what Benzema could become and that is why he did not hesitate to go to the Frenchman's home to sign him.
Florentino's visit and the start of a dynasty
The Madrid president travelled to Lyon in 2009. He knew that the young Olympique striker, who had scored 23 goals at the age of 21, was the striker of the future. Both Florentino and Karim remember the anecdote fondly. "My friends, my family and my agents told me, you have to come home. I told them I couldn't and they insisted, you have to come, here is Florentino Pérez. I opened the door and I saw him", Benzema explained to Jorge Valdano on the programme Universo Valdano. The president, for his part, remembers that moment as a shy young man, who "didn't believe he had come to his house".
Benzema gave his word to the Real Madrid boss and that same summer he landed in Madrid to begin his adventure. The first year was complicated. He lost his place in the starting line-up as time went by and injuries, and since February he did not return to the eleven for the whole season. However, the second campaign was just the opposite. He started on the bench, but as the games went by, the level of Karim began to show, and he ended the year as the undisputed starter with 26 goals in all competitions.
It was precisely that year, the year of José Mourinho's arrival at the Bernabéu, which started a debate that spread to the stands and even brought the whistles of the Madrid fans themselves. Benzema's football, for many years far removed from astronomical figures in terms of goals and assists, did not convince those at Concha Espina. They asked for goals, for numbers, which in the end is what, according to their belief, a striker should bring to Real Madrid. But Benzema has always been much more than a striker, he has been a total football player who became indispensable for the best player in Madrid's history, Cristiano Ronaldo.
They were the best of partners, and as time went by that complicity grew stronger and stronger, and ended up laying the foundations of a friendship on the pitch. They understood each other perfectly, better than any other partner Ronaldo had ever had, and that is why Benzema ended up establishing himself as the club's first-choice striker. From the 2012/2013 season onwards, Karim took over the position that he did not let go for the next decade. Not even the changes of coach made him leave the starting line-ups, because everyone understood what Benzema himself came to say in a press conference. He played for a specific audience.
"I play for people who know about football". - Karim Benzema
This was how Benzema described the way he played in November 2018, when he started the season as the team's top scorer. The criticism had always been there, but the data, those longed-for figures demanded amid whistles and boos by the fans at the Santiago Bernabéu had never arrived. Because the French striker was never a player of numbers, he was a football player at his best, a player touched by a wand that made the impossible look easy, who was able to perform an act of funambulism on the Vicente Calderón's back line that was engraved in the memory of every football fan.
Little by little, he took his figure to a level that very few manage to reach, that of one of the greatest in history. And he managed what seemed impossible, to reach the level of his idol, Zinedine Zidane. A fellow countryman and, like Karim, of Algerian descent, Zidane was, before coaching him to the historic three consecutive UEFA Champions League titles, his idol, the mirror in which the youngster from Lyon looked up to. A leader who arrived at Madrid as the most expensive signing in history, who scored one of the most iconic goals of all Champions League finals and who Karim still managed to surpass with his mark at the Santiago Bernabéu.
His pre-match ritual and strict work ethic
Benzema, a believing and practising Muslim, follows a specific plan of concentration linked to his religion which is one of the foundations of his football. For ten minutes before every match, Karim puts on his headphones to listen to the suras of the Quran. Before taking the field, Benzema concentrates by listening to one of the 114 chapters of the Islamic holy book, a practice he has been doing since before he even joined Real Madrid, and which helps him to approach matches in a relaxed manner.
One of the biggest challenges facing elite Muslim sportsmen and women is fasting during the month of Ramadan. During this month, Muslims are not allowed to eat, drink or have sex during sunlight hours. For a time, Benzema abandoned the practice of Ramadan as he felt it could affect his performance. However, there must be a commitment to make up that month of fasting later in the year. Once he adapted to the team and his new lifestyle in Madrid, Karim has religiously followed this practice, even when it coincided with key moments of the season, when many feared a drop in his performance, something he has never had any hint of suffering.
Thus, Benzema has made his religion, not only one of the pillars of his personal life, but a source of peace on which to build his football. Karim has evolved and, above all, matured. He has written his legend at the most important club in the world in a climate of competitiveness and hostility from his own fans. He has managed to overcome this with the support of his family and, as he himself has said on numerous occasions, the peace he finds in his moments of reflection and concentration that his religion provides him with. And it is precisely this that has brought him to the top of sporting history.
His ascent to Olympus with the Ballon d'Or
The 2021/2022 season went down in history for many reasons, and a good part of them, if not practically all of them, are to the credit of the Real Madrid '9'. Benzema captained his team in a campaign in which they achieved the league and Champions League double, but the importance of such a complex event does not stop there. What was truly historic was the manner in which they did it. Against the best teams on the continent, Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Manchester City. With improbable comebacks that the algorithms did little more than put Madrid's chances of qualification at 0%. What many have not hesitated to describe as the best Champions League in history.
Benzema led Madrid's season with no more and no less than 44 goals and 15 assists in 46 games, figures that only a select few can match. And all this without losing the way of playing and, especially, making those around him play, which always characterised Karim. The numbers he recorded were achieved, moreover, on vital stages. Hat-trick at the Bernabéu against PSG to turn the tie around and another at Stamford Bridge to take a valuable 1-3 win at the Santiago Bernabéu, where they had to come back - as they did at every stage - from Chelsea's 0-3 deficit.
Those pages that Benzema's boots were writing match after match were increasing to unsuspected limits. He was the decisive element that always tipped the scales in Madrid's favour, the one who decided the destiny of each match regardless of the quality of the opponents ahead of him. An accumulation of achievements that ended with the more than deserved recognition of the Ballon d'Or. In this way, Benzema was consecrated as one of the greatest, what many told him during his career that he could never be, but that he knew he had it in him and uncovered with the definitive push that came with Cristiano's departure from Madrid.
And as mentioned above, if there was one man who never doubted Benzema, it was Florentino Pérez. This is what he wanted to remember in the emotional farewell that took place last Tuesday, in which the Real Madrid president addressed a few words to Karim: "You have been a different footballer, and there are many who have taken a long time to understand you". Because, Florentino said, they were not saying goodbye to "just another player (...), we are saying goodbye to one of the most incredible footballers in our history". He is leaving after having achieved absolutely everything and, although, as the striker himself said, "I wanted to finish at Madrid, sometimes in life there is another chance". And this one is not to be underestimated.
A new chapter in the new Saudi Super League
When Cristiano Ronaldo joined Al-Nassr just a few months ago, he said he was confident that the Saudi league would become one of the top five at international level. Optimistic words indeed when, according to current rankings, it is outside the top 50. But the reality is that Saudi Arabia is making a great effort to improve the level of football and, above all, the image of the sport in the country. The arrivals of players like Ronaldo and now Benzema - in his case to Al Ittihad - might not be the only ones of historic and emblematic players of European football to the Saudi country.
Rumours of new signings from Saudi Arabia's Pro-League have been growing exponentially since the European leagues ended just a week ago. And the names that have emerged as potential signings are of really important players. The first, already official, is N'Golo Kanté, who will partner Benzema at Al Ittihad. These could be joined by Sergio Busquets, wanted by Al-Hillal, Alexis Sánchez, who has an offer from Al-Fateh, or Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, wanted by Barcelona, who has offers from Al Ahly and Al Shabab on the table.
In this way, Saudi Arabia is betting heavily on football and, for the moment, the response is far from being negative on the part of the players. Thus, the feeling is that this summer is going to have many moves to Saudi Arabia to continue the momentum that began with the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo. Now, the signing of Benzema is a new turning point as they manage to sign an icon of European football, of Real Madrid, and, above all, the current Ballon d'Or winner and, until the award is replaced, still the best player in the world.