You must not view him as a distinguished player, or as one of the legends of the offensive line in the history of the game, or as one of the owners of a rich history in Real Madrid, but you must have been affected by the news of Karim Benzema’s departure from the Royal and the Spanish League permanently.
Although everything we mentioned and many deny is already owned by Benzema, he is one of the distinguished players who have passed through the history of the Spanish League, and one of the names among the attacking legends in the history of the game, and he has a rich history with the Royals, but for several different reasons he does not find him sufficiently popular. It is enjoyed by his peers in the game, and even those who did not achieve the same as he achieved, and do not have an inspiring story like him.
Real Madrid announces the departure of Benzema
Real Madrid announced, in an official statement issued on Sunday, June 4, that Benzema has left the club after his contract officially expired.
It was a surprising step for the royal fans, to bid farewell to their star in tears in his last match on the same night the statement was issued against Athletic Bilbao in the last round of La Liga, setting the equalizer for his team and saving them from losing with a goal. His farewell goal was at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium, which witnessed the brilliance of one of the most famous players Humble and stardom of those who passed him.
Coco the shy kid
The story of Benzema begins, like all French people of Algerian origin, as he was forced to leave his home country with his family, as happened with others, and they went to France because of the well-known political events, and he lived with his family in one of the poorest neighborhoods in France, which is Trillion, and in a difficult economic situation for his father. Who was supporting a family of 8 siblings other than Karim and their mother.
Karim did not find refuge from the environment in which he lived except by going out to the street and practicing his favorite sport, and his family was happy that he had found something to keep him away from the environment in which he lived, but at that time he was overweight, which made him a field for ridicule and bullying while he was playing football while he was As a child, he influenced his personality to become shy and introverted.
And the matter came to his colleagues calling him “Coco”, but he did not let all of this affect him and continued to try to build his football career, and indeed he started with the local Bron Club of the city in which he lives, and during one of the matches against Lyon Academy Benzema scored two goals, and caught the attention of the club The largest in France at that time.
Indeed, Benzema joined the Lyon Academy in 1996 when he was only nine years old, and his star shone inside the club after they provided him with safe and quiet housing far from the neighborhood in which he grew up, and he continued to grow until he reached the first team in 2005 at the age of 16, at the request of From Paul Le Guen, the coach of the team, after witnessing his distinguished level and ability to score goals in the last period.
I’m here to take your place
Do not laugh, I am here to take your place. This was Benzema’s message to the Lyon players, when he stood in front of a constellation of stars present in the first team at the time, such as Malouda, Eric Abidal, Michael Essien and others, to find himself with a childish face stuttering in front of him and being ashamed again while introducing himself. These stars laughed at him, to respond to them with the first phrase, and silence dominated the place.
Benzema began working, leaving everything that happened outside the field behind his back, to participate in his first match with the Lyon team in January 2005 against Metz in the league, and he entered as a substitute and did not disappoint his coach as he made the second goal for his team in the match that ended with a great victory for France with a double, and Karim got He was rewarded by the club by signing his first professional contract for 3 seasons, for an amount that is the largest in his family’s history.
From here, Karim Benzema began to appear, the French star shone greatly and drew the attention of senior Europeans to him, specifically after all the stars of Lyon left and became the main striker of the team, relying entirely on him, so that senior Europeans began to look at him to support their attack line, after he scored 31 goals in 51 games in a season. 2007/2008, and was even shortlisted for the Ballon d’Or won by Cristiano Ronaldo.
Europe’s struggle ignites over Benzema
And there was interest from Manchester United to include him after Sir Alex Ferguson followed him during his training for the team in one of the matches between the two teams and spoke to him in the players’ corridor, but Lyon officials withdrew him for fear of kidnapping him and signing for United, according to Rio Ferdinand, the legend of the English club.
In April of the 2007/2008 season, Barcelona’s sporting director, Txiki Begiristain, negotiated with Lyon to include Benzema, and after a series of negotiations, they agreed to include the player for 30 million euros, but surprisingly, the Barca board of directors settled that the player is shy and introverted and will not benefit the club. Then the sporting director contacted Michel Aulas, president of Lyon, and told him that they did not want the player.
The emergence of Real Madrid and the dispute Ronaldo
A year after the Barcelona bid, Real Madrid showed interest in including Karim Benzema, as part of the club’s president Florentino Perez’s plan to build his own Galacticos in his second term, in order to build a strong team competing for championships to reconcile the Meringue fans, and he was keen to choose the players himself.
At the same time, Ronaldo appeared and his disagreement with Perez, after Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon settled his agreement with Cristiano to join the royal, Florentino came and took over the club’s presidency and objected to the idea of including the Portuguese star.
Perez’s principle in his objection to Ronaldo’s deal was that he was not the one who requested his inclusion and therefore would not consider him among the club’s Galacticos, and he tried to search with the board of directors for a way in which they would try to cancel the deal without paying the penalty clause, so that the matter leaked to Ronaldo and Jorge, his agent, and angered them, and the matter came to a head. Their request is to cancel the deal and return the club’s release clause.
But Jorge Valdano, Real Madrid’s sporting director, intervened and persuaded Perez that the club should not back down from the deal for several reasons. Indeed, the deal was settled despite the Meringue president’s dissatisfaction with the deal.
On the other hand, Perez was finishing the Benzema deal, who had great confidence in his abilities and the possibility of his contribution to the royal Galacticos, despite the criticism of a large number of fans of the deal that had already been settled.
Before his departure from Lyon, Benzema had managed to score 66 goals from 148 matches, scored 27 other goals, and won 7 different titles with the team.
Benzema fumbled at Real Madrid
Benzema arrived at Real Madrid in the 2009 season, and was presented at the Galacticos party amidst a strong hug from Perez to him, stressing his full confidence in the player, but things did not go as he had planned, as Karim found himself locked up on the bench of Manuel Pellegrini, the Royal coach at the time, in favor of Gonzalo Higuain.
Things did not go well with Benzema until Jose Mourinho arrived to coach Real Madrid in 2010, and he remained unconvinced of the player in support of the fans’ decision towards him, and he did not participate continuously with the team, but there was no response from Karim as usual. He preferred silence, shyness and response in pitch.
Mourinho’s famous sarcasm
Despite the crowd’s criticism and Mourinho’s disregard for him, Perez’s confidence in Benzema remained unaffected, confident that he would serve his Galacticos, until Jose’s famous statement and his mockery of Karim came, after Higuain suffered a serious injury that would keep him from participating for a long time and he was left with nothing left. Except for the French attacker.
Mourinho made his famous statement when he answered his question about relying on Karim, saying, “If you don’t have a dog to go hunting, and you have a cat, you go with the cat, you can’t go alone.”
Mourinho’s exciting statement increased the crowd’s mockery of Benzema, but the surprise was that the player did not respond to this matter. Rather, Spanish press reports revealed that the player met with Jose and asked him shyly not to criticize him in this way.
Benzema finally got the full opportunity, and indeed, he began to raise his score inside Real Madrid, scoring 26 goals in various competitions, and contributed to the team winning the King’s Cup title. Karim even made a great effort to lose his extra weight at the end of the season, and traveled to Italy to undergo a training program. Strict and already lost 8 kilograms of weight.
Indeed, Benzema differed a lot in the new season 2011/2012, as he scored 32 goals and assisted 19 others, and contributed to Real Madrid winning the Spanish League title after an absence of 3 seasons since the last time the team won the title in 2007/2008.
Perez insults Ronaldo and Real Madrid legends
Returning to Ronaldo, it appeared on more than one occasion that Perez did not agree with him, even though he was the star of the first team and the darling of the royal fans. He even preferred Benzema greatly, and every season the fans thought that the club would sell the player, and he was surprised by his continuation and renewal of his contract.
Indeed, the dispute appeared clearly when Perez leaked out, in which he insulted all the legends of Real Madrid, including Cristiano, who said about him, You think this man is normal, but he is not. If he was, he wouldn’t do all the things he does.
Perez criticized both Ronaldo and Mourinho in his leak, stressing that they had a huge arrogance, and Florentino continued to attack all the legends of the Meringue, with the exception of Zinedine Zidane, who was nominated for him by contracting with Benzina, David Beckham, and Karim himself.
Disappearing in Ronaldo’s cloak
And with the appearance of Benzema and the beginning of his opportunity with Real Madrid and the brilliance, there was the legend of the fans Ronaldo in the team and he was the first star, and Karim disappeared behind his mantle, as the player chose to be a little late behind the striker instead of playing the role of the outright striker to carry out other tasks, and even for a long time And his career made 47 goals for Cristiano out of the 451 goals he scored with Los Blancos, becoming more than he made for the Portuguese star throughout his career.
Benzema was ridiculed because of this, and it even came to the joy of the fans by eluding him in one of the team’s matches against Atletico, but there was a categorical response from the shy star to this matter as he said, “I do not think that my role is only to score goals only, because you You can score and your team loses. You play football with your teammates not alone. The game is about scoring, helping and working as a team.
The explosion after the departure of Ronaldo
The biggest opportunity came for Benzema. After Ronaldo left Real Madrid in 2018, everyone thought that the French star would not appear and how he would become the star of the first team after Cristiano’s departure.
Benzema shone very much with Real Madrid after Ronaldo’s departure, and became the star of the first team despite the presence of Asensio, Marcelo and Modric, and managed to become the top scorer in the Spanish League in the 2021-2022 season, and his scoring rate increased greatly after Cristiano left.
Benzema won many titles with Real Madrid since Ronaldo’s departure, with his great contribution, such as the Champions League, the Spanish League and other titles, and he won the Golden Ball in 2022, and the fans who mocked him chanted his name, to win again with his shyness and response inside the stadium.
Benzema imposes grief on Real Madrid fans
And I wrote the end of Karim Benzema’s story with Real Madrid after 14 seasons inside the Meringue castle. He came as a player to support the attack line and came out as a leader for the Royals. During all these years he managed to score 354 goals from 648 matches, and he became the second historical scorer for the club after Cristiano, and won 25 titles between Local championships, 5 European Champions Leagues, 4 European Super Cups, 5 Club World Cups, and he won everything.
To prove Benzema with all these numbers, championships and achievements, that he managed to transform himself from the shy Coco, to the legend of Real Madrid and one of the great legends in the history of football, without responding to any ridicule he was subjected to throughout his career, and he remained silent until he entered the green rectangle and exploded, and finally The opportunity for the 35-year-old came to play in a slightly calm atmosphere in the coming period and in the little time he has left in his career inside the stadiums, so what will the legend do in the coming period?
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