The history of real Madrid It shows that within its squad it is not only a requirement to have talent, but also leadership, a balanced composition to be the image of one of the most media clubs in the world. In the transition of recent decades, this courier has gone through names such as Emilio Butragueño, Fernando Hierro, Raúl González, Iker Casillas and, among the most recent, Cristiano Ronaldo and Sergio Ramos.
With the departure of all of them (Ramos was the last to leave for PSG in the summer of 2021) and without a senior youth squad, the role of merengue captain was assumed by the veteran Karim Benzema, who arrived at the club in 2009 and is therefore the second longest-serving (Marcelo is the first; he arrived in 2007). However, Benzema has had to go through a path of double effort to overcome his image after being tainted by immaturity and sexual scandals. The Frenchman has changed his profile towards a more discreet personality that responds where the public is really furious: on the pitch.
“Benzema He has had several negative episodes throughout his career, however, on the court he has always performed. He has shown that he is physically and mentally very well, managing to neutralize the negative narratives regarding the episodes he has experienced. It is very interesting because he has done it by sharing a lot of his personal history, who he is, where he comes from and what his career was like since he was young, ”analyzes Carlos López Linaldi, a communication consultant specializing in sports and diversity issues.
And it is that, in his beginnings in the white team, Benzema gave more to talk about for extra-football issues. In 2010 he was accused of having relations with an underage prostitute and was brought to trial by the Paris Pimping Brigade, although finally he and other members of the French team such as Franck Ribery and Hatem Ben Arfa were acquitted after that the girl confessed that she lied to them at her age.
In 2015 Benzema again fell into trouble with the law when he was accused of extorting money from another member of the French team, Mathieu Valbuena, in exchange for not revealing a sexual video in which he appeared. This cost Benzema to be cut from the French national team until his situation was cleared up, which lasted until 2021.
After those scandals, moments of serenity and turning points for his personal life and his sports career arrived: “In general, he has not been characterized as a party person, throughout his career he has remained very professional, His off-field problems have been due to speeding tickets or sexual scandals, which are very serious, but beyond that he has projected this image of being someone calm, familiar and committed to his profession. He greatly reinforced this image after the extortion issue against Valbuena, that was the watershed in his career, ”adds the specialist.
On the exclusively sporting issue, another watershed was Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure from Madrid in 2018. Almost four years later, Benzema has scored 124 times in 177 games without CR7 (between July 2018 and April 2022) and his average goals per game is 0.70, improving on the 0.57 he reached between 2009 and 2018, when he was a teammate of the Portuguese.
“There is a turning point in Benzema’s career: Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure from Real Madrid. There, the Frenchman acquires a maturity and leadership within the team that lead him to have the best years since he has been in the club, ”argued Julio Pulido, a Spanish journalist for the SER chain.
Amancio Amaro, a figure for Real Madrid in the 1960s, adds: “A few years ago, I couldn’t imagine Benzema commanding and leading this dressing room. He has surprised everyone. Before he was in the shadow of Cristiano Ronaldo, somewhat obscured, dedicated to creating holes for Cristiano. Now he has uncovered himself and has all the qualities that he did not show before. He has it all: he scores goals and creates the game”.
With his good sports performance, has Benzema already managed to eradicate his negative image?
“Eradicating it is particularly difficult now that everything can be found online, but at least it has certainly neutralized its narrative. In the last interviews he has given, although these issues are still mentioned, he continues to project an image of being a calm, resilient person who is ultimately vulnerable. He comments that it was a very complicated point in his career, but that he got ahead; it is difficult to eradicate negative comments, but they can be neutralized and Benzema has successfully achieved it”, emphasizes López Linaldi.
Benzema’s four-year term without Ronaldo has served to mature him. The Frenchman is now 34 years old (he will turn 35 on December 19), is living his 13th season with Real Madrid and completed his return to the French team after six years. His performance was accentuated in the last two Champions League games, scoring consecutive hat-tricks against two giants of the European elite such as PSG and Chelsea, a record that had only been achieved by five other players in history.
“He has changed in how the other players see him. He is now a stronger footballer, with more personality, more of a leader and more mature. I also see it differently compared to six years ago”, said the current merengue coach, Carlo Ancelotti, who had already managed Benzema in his first stage at the club between 2013 and 2015. The presence of the current merengue captain is so important that Ancelotti highlights it like this: “The season says that there are two strikers who have stood out a lot, Vinícius and Benzema. In the past we had Cristiano and Bale, to say that we depend on Benzema is the truth, we must not hide it, I am very happy to be dependent on Benzema”.
His merits are also seen in the local market, as he is the LaLiga scoring leader with 24 goals, 10 more than four players who occupy second place and only seven days before the end of the season. He is looking for his first Pichichi award (trophy for the best scorer of each year in LaLiga) and the first for Real Madrid since 2015 (Cristiano Ronaldo).
Thanks to the rebound of the last four years, Benzema has also already become the third top scorer in Real Madrid’s history with 316, leaving legends such as Alfredo Di Stéfano, Ferenc Puskas and Hugo Sánchez on the way. He is eight away from surpassing Raúl González in the second step, although still far from the first place, Cristiano Ronaldo with 450.
Despite his goalscoring figures, Benzema has had a duality in his market value since the pandemic began: it has not increased but it has not decreased either, which is unusual for players over 30 years of age, since it is at that age when his figure goes down. The Frenchman is currently valued at 25 million euros, which, although they place him in a distant world ranking of 263, also put him as the second most expensive footballer born in 1987, only behind Lionel Messi, according to Transfermarkt.
In August 2021, Benzema signed his most recent contract renewal with Madrid until the summer of 2023, so he will reach 14 years with the institution and his performance gives him the support to extend his relationship. He is also at a comfortable moment in his personal life, since he changed his residence to Ciudalcampo, a complex located 35 kilometers north of Madrid and far from the city, where he also enjoys the second son of the.
He also maintains his religious affiliation and is currently fasting in Ramadan, the month of veneration required by Islam. “The fast suits me very well,” said Benzema in the week before the Champions League quarter-final first leg against Chelsea, where he helped his team take more than half a step towards the semi-finals with his hat. trick. That spiritual stability translates into football leadership and the consolidation of his image as the great symbol of Real Madrid today.
Real Madrid supported Benzema despite his scandals and is reaping the fruit of that shelter, by having a mature captain, in one of his best sporting moments, who creates a group and is his main commercial image.
“Even with the last big scandal he had, the team publicly declared that they were with him. With this, Real Madrid wins in two aspects: one, the sporting achievements that Benzema is having and that in the end they contribute to the group; two, seeing it from the image and commercial side, put up with their next idol, looked to the future and worked both on an exit plan for the big stars who said goodbye and for their next big star, which is Benzema. Right now, since Ramos and Cristiano left, I don’t see anyone who has the image and weight that Benzema is projecting at the club”, concludes the specialist in sports communication.