Benzema, Karim

Benzema, the son of immigrants from a poor Algerian village, was born in the northern suburbs of Lyon . His parents, Hafid and Maliki, have ten children - five daughters and five sons. The Benzema family lived in a small house in the center of Bron Terralion ^[6] , an area with high unemployment. At the age of eight, he began playing for the Bron Terralion club, where he was spotted with abilities that were clearly above average. His first trainer from the Bron Terralion team Serge Patriarka noted: “Karim will go far. But for me the most important thing is that he got into people from such an area, from where it’s hard to get out alive. ” Benzema attended the college of St. Bruno in the first district, but did not differ in his ability to science. In childhood, his idols were Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane .

Lyon

At the age of 9 he got into the Lyon training system, at 17 he became one of the best reserve team players, scoring three dozen goals per season. In December 2004, he joined the main team of Lyon, on January 15, 2005, at the Gerland home stadium Karim in the French Championship match. In this game (against “ Metz ”) he gave an assist pass to Brian Bergun. Despite the fact that Benzema was the European champion among juniors, the club was in no hurry to transfer him to the main team, and he played only 6 games that season.

At the very beginning of his career, Benzema was compared with David Trezeguet for his ability to circumvent the defense, but he soon earned a comparison with Zinedine Zidane, also a kabbalah of origin ^[7] .

In the 2005/06 season, Benzema opened the scoring for his balls in the French league. In the last minute of the match, he scored a goal against Ajaccio . He played in 13 games that season, scoring 1 goal. The debut in European competition was in the Champions League group stage match against Rosenborg . In this match, Benzema opened the scoring for his Eurogames.

In the 2006/07 season, Benzema became the main striker of Lyon. He played in 21 games and scored 5 goals. The following season, he scored 20 goals in the French championship and became the top scorer, and one of the leaders of his team. Information appeared in the press about the interest in Benzema from leading European clubs, including Real , Juventus , Liverpool and Chelsea , but Karim, through his agent, said he did not want to leave Lyon, with whom he intended to win the League UEFA Champions ^{[8] [9]} . In the 2008/2009 season, the forward scored 17 goals in 36 matches of the French championship. In just 149 games for Lyon, Benzema scored 66 goals.

Real Madrid

However, on July 1, 2009, Benzema transferred to the Spanish club Real Madrid for € 35 million, signing a six-year contract ^[10] with a salary of 6.5 million euros per year. Real Madrid paid the player’s agent Karim Jaziri 10% commission on the transfer amount. This is the maximum allowed agent interest rate in European football. Benzema became the fourth acquisition of Real Madrid in the offseason after the Brazilian Kaka , the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo , and the Spaniard Raul Albiol . On July 9, he was officially introduced as the new player of Real Madrid. The presentation of the attacker on the “ Santiago Bernabeu ” gathered about 15-20 thousand spectators ^[11] . Karim Benzema became the fifteenth French player in the history of the Madrid club, he received the 11th number in the team ^[12] .

2009/10 Season

Benzema’s debut for the new club came in a match with Deportivo . Real Madrid won 3: 2, but Benzema, who entered the field from the first minutes, failed to score, and was replaced in 73 minutes. He scored his first official goal for “creamy” in the match of the 3rd round against “ Sherry ”. In his first season for a new club, Benzema did not always make it to the base. Of the 26 games played, only 14 went out at the base and played only 90 minutes in 4 matches. In total, in the 2009/10 season, Benzema played 33 matches in all competitions and scored 9 goals, 8 of which were in the Spanish championship.

Season 2010/11

After Raoul’s departure to Schalke , Cristiano Ronaldo took the 7th number, and Benzema took the 9th. With the arrival of Jose Mourinho as head coach, the situation has not changed. In the first half of the 2010/11 season, Benzema was not a base player and appeared on the field, mainly coming on as a substitute. After the striker of “Real” Gonzalo Higuain was seriously injured and dropped out for a long time, Benzema got a good chance to become a solid base player and began to appear on the field from the first minutes. December 8, 2010 made his first hat-trick in the Champions League match against Auxerre . The first of three goals was for Real Madrid 300th in the matches of the Champions League. The second hat-trick of Benzema came in the match of the 1/8 finals of the Spanish Cup against Levante . Benzema won the confidence of Jose Mourinho, scoring 10 goals in 10 matches in all competitions (including three doubles: against Malaga , Racing and Hercules ). In total, in the 2010/11 season, Benzema spent 48 matches and scored 26 goals.

Season 2011/12

Benzema impressively began the season, scoring 8 goals in 7 pre-season matches. He scored the first goal in the new season in the match of the 3rd round against Getafe . After that, he scored on the ball into the goal of “ Rayo Vallecano ”, “ Villarreal ”, “ Valencia ” and a double into the goal of “ Osasuna ”. In the first, El Clasico Benzema scored a goal against Valdes in the first minute, but this goal did not save Real Madrid, the loser in the end with a score of 1: 3. In the group stage of the Champions League, Benzema scored “ Ajax ” and “ Lyon ” and a double into the goal of Dynamo Zagreb .

After the defeat from Barcelona , Real Madrid issued an 11-match series of victories in which Benzema scored a goal against Levante and a double against Granada and Racing. In the 1/8 finals of the Spanish Cup, Benzema scored on the ball in a two-match confrontation against Malaga. In the second leg of the quarter finals of the cup against Barcelona, ​​Benzema equalized. The match ended with the score 2: 2, but in the sum of two matches Barcelona reached the semifinals. In the second leg of the Champions League 1/8 finals, Benzema came on as a substitute in the 70th minute and a minute later he scored the third goal of Real Madrid against CSKA. “Real” itself won with a score of 4: 1 and reached the quarter finals, where he met with the Cyprus APOEL . In Cyprus, Benzema scored 2 goals.

In the match of round 28 against Malaga , Real Madrid lost points for the first time in 11 games. Benzema scored a goal in the 35th minute, but in the 92nd Santi Cazorla from the free-kick hit the goal of Iker Casillas . In the end of the Spanish Championship, Benzema scored 7 more goals in 10 matches and helped Real Madrid become the champion. In the same season, the three “Real” - Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema and Gonzalo Higuain - scored 118 goals for the season, which was the best result in the history of the championship of Spain.

Season 2013/14

This season was one of the best in the career of the French striker: in the championship of Spain, the Frenchman played 35 matches and scored 17 times. This season, the Madrid Club’s attack forms the BBC “trident bundle” ( Bale , Benzema and Ronaldo), who scored 66% of the club’s goals in all competitions. Karim became one of the main players of the Madrid club, and constant playing practice allowed the Frenchman to gain a foothold in the national team, having gone with her to the 2014 World Cup . Karim Benzema scored a goal in the 45th minute of the match of the 20th round of the championship of Spain against Betis , so the French national team player scored his 100th goal for the Madrid club.

Season 2014/15

This season turned out to be better for Benzema than the previous one, in 32 matches he scored 17 goals in all competitions, also with 13 goals he takes 5th place in the scorers of the championship of Spain. He became the author of one of the goals against Barcelona in the 9th round. The match ended 3-1 in favor of Real Madrid. After this victory, the club broke into first place in the championship.

Season 2015/16

The Frenchman scored the first goal of the season against Betis in the 2nd round. This season, Karim Benzema scored 2 hat-tricks. He made his first hat-trick in the 6th round of the Champions League against Malmö . He scored a second hat-trick against Rayo Vallecano in the 16th round of the Spanish Championship . That match ended in a crushing victory of “creamy” 10: 2.

In 2004, Benzema was a player in the French national team under 17, with whom he won the European Championship among youth under 17 , for the first time in the history of the national team. At a tournament that took place in France , Benzema scored one goal in a match against the Northern Ireland team in the group stage. Later he played for the national team until the age of 18. In 2005, together with the national team, he won the Meridian Cup . He played in all four matches and thanks to his five goals France won the tournament. In 2005-2006 he played for the national team until the age of 19, for which he spent 8 matches and scored 4 goals. Later he received a call to the youth team , in which he took part in the qualifying matches of the European Youth Championship 2007 . In butt games, the French team unexpectedly lost to the Israeli team in the sum of two matches. At that tournament, Benzema played in all five matches, but failed to score a single goal.

In December 2006, he received a call to the first national team of France for a match against the Greek national team , but did not appear on the field due to an injury. At the same time, the proposal from the Algerian Football Federation to play for the North African national team Benzema refused.

A full-fledged debut took place on March 28, 2007 in a friendly match against the Austrian national team , in which Benzema, having entered the field in the second half, scored a goal and brought the French national team victory.

Benzema together with the national team took part in the 2008 European Championship . France then took the last place in the group and flew out of the tournament. Benzema played in two matches and did not score a single goal. After Euro 2008, Karim changed his 9th number to a T-shirt with number 10. In the qualification for the 2010 World Cup, he took part in 8 matches, but only three of them entered the field from the first minutes. Before the final tournament, national team coach Raymond Domenech did not include Benzema in the preliminary application for participation in the World Cup in South Africa ^[14] .

After Euro 2012, Benzema did not score for the national team for 1222 minutes. The series was interrupted on October 11, 2013 in a friendly match against Australia.

In the qualifying tournament of the World Cup 2014, the French played very well, Benzema scored 1 goal in the second leg against Finland, as a result, the match ended with a score 3: 0. France was in second place, missing Spain, and played in butt games against Ukraine, where it lost 2-0 at first, but defeated Ukraine 3-0 in the return match. Benzema scored a goal between double Mamadou Saco. In the final stage of the World Cup in Group E , where the rivals were Honduras, Switzerland, Ecuador, the French won first place and Karim Benzema scored 3 goals - a double against Honduras and 1 goal against the Swiss, the match with which ended with a score of 5 : 2 in favor of France; also made 3 assists. In the 1/8 finals, they successfully defeated Nigeria with a score of 2: 0, while Benzema made an assist to Antoine Griezmann . In the 1/4 match against Germany, Benzema failed to distinguish himself, and France lost with the score 0: 1. However, Karim became the best player and the scorer of the French team in this tournament.

In 2015, Benzema was suspended from playing for the national team because of a scandal involving blackmail by Mathieu Valbuen , and since then he has not been featured on any shortlist of players to prepare for the national team’s matches, including matches within the European Championships and the world ^[15] . In 2018, the president of the French Football Federation announced that Benzema would never again be called up for the national team ^[16] .

Team Achievements

Lyon

• Champion of France ( 4 ): 2004/05 , 2005/06 , 2006/07 , 2007/08
• French Cup Winner: 2007/08
• French Super Cup Winner ( 2 ): 2006, 2007

Total: 7 trophies

"RealMadrid"

• Champion of Spain ( 2 ): 2011/12 , 2016/17
• Spanish Cup Winner ( 2 ): 2010/11 , 2013/14
• Super Bowl Spain ( 2 ): 2012 , 2017
• UEFA Champions League winner ( 4 ): 2013/14 , 2015/16 , 2016/2017 , 2017/2018
• UEFA Super Cup Winner ( 3 ): 2014 , 2016 , 2017
• Club World Cup Winner ( 4 ): 2014 , 2016 , 2017 , 2018

Total: 17 trophies

France national team

• European Champion (U17) : 2004
• Meridian Cup Winner: 2005

Total in career: 24 trophies

Personal Achievements

• Soccer Player of the Year in France ( 3 ): 2011, 2012, 2014
• French top scorer: 2008
• Bravo Trophy Winner: 2008
• The author of the 300th goal of Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League

In November 2015, Benzema was detained by the French police as a defendant in the blackmail case ^[17] . On December 10, 2015, it became known that Karim Benzema was suspended from playing for the French national football team. This was announced by the President of the Football Federation of France Noel Le Grae ^[18] . This decision was brought to the head coach of the French national football team Didier Deschamps ^{[19] [20] [21]} .

Club career

As of April 21, 2019

Team Matches

Total: matches played: 81 / goals scored: 27; wins: 45, draws: 20, defeats: 16.

• Profile on the official website of FC Real Madrid (English) (Spanish)
• Profile on the website of the Football Federation of France (Fr.)