Karim Benzema leaves Real Madrid as the quintessential artist: full of contradictions
It feels as if we’re getting used to this. La Liga legend leaves, taking with them memories, milestones and historic trophy hauls. Every summer for the last three has seen a statement piece of the furniture leave, in this case several all at once. Karim Benzema spent 14 years at Real Madrid, and had all of the brilliance pitfalls of a moody genius in front of a canvas.
Benzema arrived as a kid and he leaves a legend, said Florentino Pérez at his farewell press conference. Typically reserved in his final speech of just two minutes, neglecting a press conference, Benzema thanked all of those who were involved in his time at the Santiago Bernabéu.
For his first years at the club, Benzema was battling it out to be the first-choice striker, as Gonzalo Higuaín finished more accurately and more frequently, but Benzema did so with verve. The Frenchman was quicker, every now and then he did extraordinary things, and he did so with a range of skills that conjured up fear in the opposition.
Over time, Benzema became established as the number nine for a side that played to provide for the number seven. Benzema had spent his teenage years adding raw materials to make himself the sharpest end of a football team, and yet with Cristiano Ronaldo to his left, took a conscious decision to become the lithium in the middle of it; malleable, valuable and capable of powering the attack around him.
As Ronaldo dribbled less, moving closer and closer towards goal, and touched the ball less, Benzema moved further away, touched the ball more, and ensured that he had a supply line. It’s no act of heroism, but it was both humble and intelligent. Likely the shortest route towards titles, he worked out how to play another position on the fly, and put aside his ego in order to do so. Over the past decade Real Madrid have never really functioned with a number ten behind him, and it probably isn’t a coincidence.
A metallic metaphor for him is far too unkind to be allowed to slide. Benzema has a feel and a touch for the ball that at times made him irresistible. Elegant, cultured, he played wearing a black roll-neck, caring little for the critics and produced what he knew to be of value.
Paradoxically, when Ronaldo left, many Real Madrid fans were not troubled by the thought of his departure. Never as reliable in front of goal as Ronaldo Nazário, Raúl González, Ruud van Nistlerooij or Cristiano alongside him, his followers were forced to defend him in public forum.
Something they had to do off the pitch too, Benzema did not come without problems. Prostitute rings, blackmail and driving incidents are all things he has sent his lawyer to court for, and while he was not charged for soliciting underage sex in the first instance, he did not escape with his innocence in the latter two. Seven years he was absent from the French national team, and when he returned, he left swiftly under a cloud nobody appears willing to clear properly.
Benzema appeared to show the ultimate team ethos when sacrificing his goal tallies for the benefit of others. In contrast, the past two seasons Vinícius Júnior has been his best accomplice, but it is not long since Benzema asked his teammates not to pass the ball to him. He got off lighter than Olivier Giroud, who was referred to as a carthorse. None of that humble attitude was in evidence when Giroud was leading the line for the World Cup-winning Les Bleus, while he returned back to Madrid having failed to see them past Switzerland.
With Ronaldo gone though, Benzema embarked on three seasons that would form his magnum opus. Culminating in a Champions League and La Liga double, the Ballon d’Or-winning season will go down as one of the finest in history. He had the audacious disdain to Panenka a penalty while losing in a Champions League semi-final. He had the predatorial instinct to bully Eduouard Mendy out of the competition. In arguably the greatest ever run to the trophy, no matter how the ball was fired, lofted or rolled into him, he connected with an aesthetic sweetness that eludes most artists for a lifetime.
Flourishing with responsibility and freedom, Benzema became that nightmare opponent that barely misses. Over that stretch, already in his thirties, he was so good that record-signing Eden Hazard’s absenteeism became a minor side story. It looked as if he had literally become larger, the sense of his presence conditioned every attack. Benzema was as beautiful to watch as he was effective.
He leaves Real Madrid with 354 goals and 165 assists in 648 games. The forward who wasn’t ruthless leaves as the club’s second-top scorer in their history, behind only the man he spent nine years working to provide for. He leaves a legend, a man with statistics to argue on his quality on his behalf. A moody genius, he fits all the tropes and was still a one-off.