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For years he was in the shadow of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, but now Karim Benzema has become a contender for the title of most prolific scorer in Spain and has even been dubbed the best center forward in the world and the best forward in the history of Spain. France.
The top scorers table in Spain currently has him at the eight-goal level at the top with Villarreal’s Gerard Moreno and Celta Vigo’s Iago Aspas, one goal ahead of Luis Suárez, Mikel Oyarzabal and Lionel Messi.
But take penalties out of the equation and Benzema is clear at the top still with eight goals and only Suárez with seven comes close. Moreno would have only four, Aspas and Messi five, and Oyarzabal only two.
Benzema has never been Real Madrid’s penalty taker. For years he gave that right to Ronaldo, and now it is Sergio Ramos who takes a step forward. Benzema could carry them, of course he could.
When he has had to score from the penalty for Real Madrid he has never failed with 11 hits out of 11.
But he only steps forward when needed, it’s the story of his career.
For years, Ronaldo was the only talisman the club needed, but in his absence Benzema has filled the void.
In Zinedine Zidane’s first stint as Real Madrid coach, Ronaldo was responsible for 28 percent of Real Madrid’s goals. In Zidane’s second stage, Benzema scored 29 percent.
The French forward has 12 goals in all competitions with four in the Champions League. He was the first to do 10 in Spain this season.
Now that Messi is clicking with Pedri and playing with a smile on his face, he could start to find the back of the net more regularly and has the advantage over Benzema that he takes all shots from the point, but Benzema can never have a better chance of doing it. finish as the top scorer for Spain.
It’s a big problem in La Liga with the ‘Pichichi’ award named after Rafael Moreno Aranzadi, who scored goals for fun in the second decade of the last century for Athletic Bilbao. Benzema deserves to win it at least once before retiring.
Not that retirement is on the horizon. Shunned by French coach Didier Deschamps, he has fewer miles on the clock than other players who share his age.
The 33-year-old could continue to play for quite a while longer in his current form and even if he doesn’t achieve the highest score in Spain, his record of 32 from the 11-12 season is definitely under threat.
Eibar coach José Luis Mendilibar referred to Benzema this week as the most complete striker in the world. His ability to drift in wide areas or land in midfield has always been there and made him the ideal complement for any blind-eyed attacking partner, but he has also shown that he can convert threaded passes and shoot crossings himself .
Everything is far from the days when José Mourinho disparagingly referred to him as his ‘cat’. Contrasting his qualities with those of Gonzalo Higuaín, Mourinho said: “When I don’t have my dog, I will have to go hunting with my cat.”
If Benzema didn’t always have Mourinho on his side, he has never had to worry about what his president would think.
Florentino Pérez is perhaps his most important sponsor since signing him from Lyon ahead of Manchester United in 2009. And Zidane loves him too. He was recently asked if he thought Benzema was the best French striker of all time and he replied: ‘For me it is yes.
Deschamps would not agree and point to France winning the World Cup without him, but it still feels like a missed opportunity to face Kylian Mbappé and Antoine Griezmann with Benzema in attack.
There is still the possibility that Benzema is Mbappé’s teammate at Madrid. The Spanish club hopes that the pull of the French revolution under Zidane in Madrid will mean that Mbappé ends his contract and moves to the Spanish capital cheaply.
Before all that, he has a league to win and a Pichichi award in his pocket and continues to climb the list of all-time top scorers at Real Madrid.
He is fifth with 261 goals and has Santillana (290) in his sights in fourth place. Then he would only have Alfredo di Stefano (308), Raúl (323) and Ronaldo (450) ahead.
For years, Benzema was never taken entirely seriously. Those days are behind us. Real Madrid’s number nine is the club’s number one now, and his best argument for winning this year.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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