One of the best strikers of his era: Karim Benzema

By Selcuk Bugra Gokalp

ANKARA (AA) - Real Madrid's decorated French striker Karim Benzema added the 2022 Ballon d'Or (Golden Ball) award to his trophy room on Monday.

Despite his advancing age, the 34-year-old Frenchman's performance seems to be improving with every passing year.

- Early days

Algerian-descent player Karim Mostafa Benzema was born in Lyon, France, on Dec. 19, 1987.

He joined the Olympique Lyon Academy at the age of 9.

In 2005, at the age of 18, he was promoted to Lyon senior team, which was a dominating force in Ligue 1 then.

He won four straight French league titles between 2005 and 2008 with Lyon and left the club after scoring 66 goals and making 27 assists in 148 matches.

- Los Galacticos

His new club was one of the best in the globe, Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid.

He joined Los Merengues in the summer of 2009, along with two superstars, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka, to kickstart the second Los Galacticos era in Real Madrid.

Los Galacticos was a name the media and fans gave to Real Madrid during the era when the team acquired several most talented and famous players globally.

The first era, between 2000 and 2006, included big transfers like Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham and Ronaldo.

His adaptation to his new team was not easy, but he showed his quality in Jose Mourinho's famous 2011-12 squad, which won the La Liga title with record goals and points.

Benzema's unselfish playstyle and unmatched harmony with Real's attack trio - Ronaldo, Di Maria, Mesut Ozil - helped the team's already decorated scoring capabilities. He netted 32 goals and made 19 assists in 52 games that season.

- National team suspension

Benzema's national team career took a massive hit in 2015.

His teammate from France's National Team, Mathieu Valbuena, was blackmailed with a recording containing inappropriate images and one of the blackmailers was rumored to be one of Benzema's old friends.

Karim was tried and sentenced for allegedly aiding blackmail. As a result, he was suspended from the France national team until 2020 and couldn't join his friends when they bagged the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

He later claimed that his long suspension was more related to his Algerian descent and being a Muslim than his trial process.

He criticized then-French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who denied the possibility of his return to the national team and accused Benzema of not being a good example.

He wrote, "12 seasons that I am professional: 541 matches played 0 red cards 11 yellow cards!!! And some talk about my exemplarity???" in his Twitter account.

He was recalled to the France squad in 2020 and won the 2021 UEFA Nations League with his compatriots.

- Successful club career

Benzema's national team career was suspended, but his club career was a different story.

He gained experience and seemed to become better with each passing year.

He became the perfect assistant to Ronaldo for several seasons, and the duo helped Real Madrid to bag four UEFA Champions League titles (2014, 2016, 2017, 2018) and two La Liga titles (2012, 2017).

After the Portuguese superstar's departure to Juventus in 2018, Benzema became the main attack weapon of the Real Madrid squad.

He netted more than 60 goals in the next three seasons and became the top goal scorer in the 2022 UEFA Champions League with 15 goals.

- Playstyle

Karim Benzema was never the most athletic footballer and he mostly suffered from gaining weight quickly except for the last few years of his career.

Still, his qualities were good enough for him to be called one of the best strikers of his era.

His creativity, skillfulness, quickness, agility and air capabilities were the most beneficial qualities of the Frenchman.

One of his most important features is regarded to be his unselfish playmaking capabilities, which is most unexpected from a player of his caliber.

Portuguese manager Jose Mourinho made good use of this feature of his, built a deadly attack quartet including him, and the squad won a record-breaking La Liga championship in 2012.

- Legacy

Karim Benzema is the second top scorer in Real Madrid history with 328 goals after his former teammate Cristiano Ronaldo, who netted 450.
The decorated Frenchman bagged an amazing five UEFA Champions League (2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2022), four La Liga titles (2012, 2017, 2020, 2022), four FIFA Club World Cups (2014, 2016, 2017, 2018) with Real Madrid and four straight Ligue 1 titles between 2005 and 2008 with Olympique Lyon.

He was awarded the 2022 Ballon d'Or (Golden Ball), the most prestigious individual award for a footballer to get. He became the second oldest player to claim the award at 34, behind the 1956 winner, Stanley Matthews, who bagged the award at 41.

He has 37 goals in 97 caps for France and won the 2021 UEFA Nations League with them.

The veteran striker was also named UEFA Men's Player of 2022.

- Controversies

Benzema's career had some controversies over the years as well.
In 2006, Benzema drew some criticism for his comments about his national team choice. He said his home country Algeria is in his heart but playing for France is "more sporty."

In 2015, he was tried and sentenced for allegedly aiding in blackmailing his national squad teammate Mathieu Valbuena and suspended from the national team for five years.