This is how Benzema is off the pitch


Only one person realized its full potential when landing on the Bernabeu: Zinedine Zidane. Zizou he became an older brother, almost a father to him. Benzema was a shy and introverted player surrounded by a tumultuous environment for a 23-year-old coming to Real Madrid to succeed. Sports cars, exotic parties, famous friends… Zidane ‘adopted’ him, advised the young man and ate with him almost daily. He convinced her that he had the potential to succeed in the ‘White House’.

He challenged Mourinho

However, the turning point in Karim’s career at Real Madrid came in December 2010. The Frenchman’s first season at the club had not been completed when, at the press conference prior to a match in Saragossa, Mourinho He wanted to win the covers with an unfortunate headline about Benzema that angered the Frenchman: “If you don’t have a dog to go hunting and you have a cat, then you go with the cat because you can’t go alone.” The Portuguese coach put pressure on Jorge Valdano, then white sports director, to bring a reinforcement in attack. Which he achieved with the arrival a few weeks later of Emmanuel Adebayor.

But Karim stood up in Mourinho’s office and was very clear: “I am a soccer player, you are my coach. I respect you, so respect me as a footballer. I’m shy, but if you’re going to laugh at me, you’re going to find me.” That day Mou changed the conception he had of Benzema and the player earned the respect of a dressing room that paid homage to the Portuguese. The Frenchman continued to listen to Zidane, who became his coach in 2016, living a glorious stage by winning three Champions in a row.

diet and goals

Karim, right hand of Zizou On the pitch, he underwent a footballing transformation that began to put his life in order, including a diet that made him lose five kilos in the summer and arrive at the 2019 preseason with a more fibrous and explosive figure. Benzema put himself in the hands of the chef Alberto Mastromatteo, who designed a personalized diet with a lot of prominence of algae, fish and vegetables, as well as coconut oil and alkaline water. The player gained speed and that gave him a plus in the area, something that was reflected in his goalscoring records. Benzema went from scoring 12 and 11 goals in Zidane’s first two seasons as coach, to chaining 30, 27, 30 and 30 in the last four seasons.

Karim took a step forward with the march of Cristiano Ronaldo and he has added to his ability to give assists (he is the greatest assistant in the club’s history) a scoring power that has boosted him, with the hat trick to PSG, to Madrid’s historic podium with 309 goals, behind Cristiano (451) and Raul (323), and in front of the mythical Alfredo DiStefano (308).

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Today Benzema’s life has little to do with that of disco nights letting himself be seen with Rihannaof accusations of extortion because of his dangerous friendships or of fines for driving without a license. Karimmarried in 2017 with the model Cora Gautier, He is a homebody who enjoys being the father of Ibrahim and Melia. Benzema He has become an example on and off the field. Against PSG, when he came out of the tunnel at half-time, he told Courtois: «Thibaut, get the team out the back and help me pull them up to press up.” That is why when a journalist asked him about the mistake of Donnarumma in the play of the first madridista goal, the Frenchman responded enraged with the same determination with which he spoke with Mourinho that day in his office. “Donnarumma’s mistake? It has been the result of the pressure we have exerted upstairs.” Karim, Mourinho’s cat, is today the Lion King of the Bernabéu.



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