When we think about Real Madrid, we think about Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale. And we also think about possible new strikers that might arrive in the near future. Names like Sergio Aguero, Alexis Sanchez and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang have been mentioned in the past few months. However, there’s one player everybody forgets, and that’s Karim Benzema.
The French striker has been with Real Madrid since the 2009-10 season. And while he’s not flashy, there’s no question he can score goals with the best of them. However, Madrid fans tend to dislike him, and some even want him gone as soon as possible. With no shortage of suitors in the transfer market, Real Madrid should make the right move and sell him. Benzema needs to be in a club where he’ll get the respect he deserves.
There’s no question the 29-year-old is a prolific striker – he always finds a way to score goals. However, at the same time we can see he’s not as effective as he had been in the past. Benzema has scored 15 goals in 33 appearances across all competitions this season, but somehow that’s not good enough. Of course he won’t be the focus of attention playing next to Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale, but that’s not the issue. The main problem is that Benzema doesn’t get the credit he deserves.
Benzema’s competition for a starting spot upfront is Alvaro Morata, a Spanish striker who’s also a product from Real Madrid’s youth system. And while Benzema has been the starter on most games, Morata’s numbers are better (12 goals in 31 games) and the team generally looks more fluid when the Spaniard is on the pitch. So that’s becoming a problem as well, as fans want to see Morata on a more consistent basis. And who could blame them? While Benzema has more goals (15 to 12), Morata has played 1.336 minutes against Benzema’s 2.162. So there’s the popular belief that with more time Morata would eventually better Benzema’s production.
Again, the numbers don’t lie in this case. But soccer players are human beings, and Benzema hasn’t received enough credit where it’s due. It’s not easy to play for Real Madrid, and he has excelled in the team for almost a decade. After all, we’re talking about a player who has 177 goals and 101 assists in 350 games in his career with Los Merengues. That’s not an easy thing to achieve, and yet fans treat Benzema as if he was an ordinary striker, not the world class player he is.
I mean, look at the video below if there are any doubts regarding his quality:
Manchester United, Juventus, Manchester City and AC Milan have all expressed interest for Benzema in the past, and there’s no question he would excel in any of those leagues. His game is tailor-made for the Premier League, and in the Serie A he could be the player who leads Milan’s rebuild. But for that to happen, Real Madrid needs to pull the trigger and sell him.
Benzema has stated he doesn’t want to leave, but maybe that’s what’s best for his career. Otherwise he will spend his prime years on the shadows behind Ronaldo and Bale. And that’s not what he deserves.