It's time to give Karim Benzema the respect he truly deserves
By Mitch Wilks
In an era where football is correctly dominated by marvelling over the unfathomable greatness of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, with the pair battling it out for Ballon d'Ors like The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin in the Attitude Era, plenty of talent goes underappreciated.
It's warranted, because quite simply, no player will ever come close to the levels that Messi and Ronaldo have somehow managed to reach throughout their respective careers. There are always those who are overshadowed by such greatness, however, and in turn are criminally underappreciated.
Step forward Karim Benzema. Perhaps the greatest player during this era of the beautiful game to not win football's ultimate individual accolade.
Signing for Real Madrid from Lyon in 2009, a £32m fee in that year was still rather high, especially considering Benzema was just 21 at the time of signing.
The pressure of merely signing for Real isn't talked about enough. So many make the jump, but just as many fail to deliver on their promise. That should be even further amplified when you're the striker that's expected to come in and rule the kingdom. Benzema bagged nine goals and six assists in all competitions in his first season as Los Blancos' new forward; an impressive return for a 21-year-old who started just 18 games.
Since then, Benzema has developed into one of the most complete centre-forwards in world football. His immense engine sees him run tirelessly from end to end, mucking in to defend or winning the ball back to start an attack. That is combined with freakish technical excellence; a ruthless finishing ability, consistent eye for the killer pass and accurate positioning and movement which allows him to bring other players into play more often than not.
It's exactly this selflessness that had been holding him back throughout the 2010s. While the likes of Ronaldo and Gareth Bale stole the headlines at the Santiago Bernabeu, Benzema was quietly pocketing 20+ goal seasons for fun, while also assisting the two star pupils. To put the Frenchman's output into context, Benzema has failed to score 20+ goals and register more than ten assists in just two out of ten seasons of football. Two.
Stats can often be a little misleading, simply not telling the whole story or doing a player enough justice as to just how sublime they are to watch. But for Benzema, it's worth having a little numbers love-in, because they are frankly obscene.
A blip for Benzema between 2016 and 2018 still saw him rack up 20+ goal contributions in both 2016/17 and 2017/18. The 33-year-old has held it down in arguably the most scrutinised striker's role in all of football for a decade, and increased his levels further to accommodate for the departures of Ronaldo and more recently Bale.
As if it wasn't possible for Benzema to up his reputation any more, his form since 2018 proves otherwise. He has developed into Real's leader in the post-Ronaldo era, upping his productivity and singlehandedly keeping them afloat at times with his contributions for the club, which has finally seen him earn some much deserved applause as the main man.
His 27 goals and 11 assists carried Los Blancos to a La Liga crown in 2019/20 after a two-year spell without the league title. He's shown no signs of slowing down this season either - despite playing with broken fingers since early 2019 - and has again dragged his side back into the title race for the 2020/21 season with 19 goals from 26 league games thus far.
He shone again as Real overcame Barcelona in the second Clasico of the 2020/21 La Liga season, scoring the opener in sublime fashion as he flicked the ball behind him and into the back of the net at the near post - a summary of his incredible technique.
Many have come and gone at Madrid. Be it a successful stay or not, Benzema has always been in the side and very rarely not enjoyed a successful season. His 18 trophies with the club means he has won more with them than Ronaldo and he currently sits as their third highest scorer ever.
Benzema is already a Real Madrid and footballing legend, but there seems to be no expiry date on the magic of the 33-year-old who is continually gluing together the club's attack to haul them to silverware, in a transitional period where anyone else would've suffered tremendously.