Karim Benzema waited for Ronaldo to leave, then won the Ballon d'Or himself
For nine seasons at Real Madrid, Karim Benzema was the selfless partner who created space for Cristiano Ronaldo. When Ronaldo left in 2018, the Frenchman became the main striker, won the Pichichi, took a fifth Champions League as the competition's top scorer and in 2022 became only the fifth French winner of the Ballon d'Or.
Benzema was born in Lyon on 19 December 1987 to a family of Algerian and Kabyle descent. At eight he played for local side Bron Terraillon, and two goals in an under-10 game against Lyon's academy got him noticed. He was a ballboy at senior matches and scored 38 goals in the national under-16 league. Introduced to a Lyon dressing room containing Michael Essien and Florent Malouda, he was teased while making the customary speech and replied that they should not laugh, because he had come to take their place.
He debuted in January 2005 and was part of four of Lyon's seven straight league titles. In 2007–08, given the number 10 shirt, he scored 31 goals in 51 games, topped Ligue 1 with 20, helped win the club's first league and cup double and was named the league's player of the year. A long-range strike against Manchester United drew praise from Alex Ferguson, and Lyon's president Jean-Michel Aulas put a 100 million euro price on him.
Real Madrid paid 35 million euros in 2009, then a French record. Alongside Ronaldo and Gareth Bale, the trio nicknamed BBC, he won four Champions Leagues between 2014 and 2018. He finished with 25 trophies at the club, ranks second in its scoring list behind Ronaldo, and holds French records for Champions League goals, 90, and assists, 29. In Saudi Arabia he later wore the armband as Al-Ittihad won the league in 2024–25.
His France career was uneven. He won the European Under-17 Championship in 2004 and debuted for the seniors at 19, but was left out of the 2010 World Cup and then missed more than five years after being implicated in a 2015 blackmail case. Recalled for Euro 2020, he won the Bronze Boot. An injury kept him from playing at the 2022 World Cup, and he retired from international football with 37 goals in 97 caps.
Source: Karim Benzema
