Benzema is somewhere in between Anelka and Trezeguet (his finishing skills are closer to David's). Technically gifted the more i see him the more i think of Zidane with his tricks and his tactical intelligence. Funny how many former players say Karim will become a complete n° 10. A n° 10 able to score often... let's hope he will become our next Michel Platini
Actually, Trez wasn't a late bloomer, the comparisons are a bit off as Trez exploded after he turned 20, scoring 18 goals in L1 that season to give himself a spot on the WC-winning squad. Also, Henry initially played on the wing at Monaco. He wasn't a central striker till his Arsenal days. Anelka was "poached" by Wenger before doing anything in L1. He was mainly a substitute behind Bergkamp/Ian Wright before having a breakout season the year after the World Cup. As for Louis Saha, he wasn't on a terrific team, hard to compare there. As for Cissé, I don't think he and Benzema should be in the same sentence. Benzema is much better. Though worth noting: Many of the U-x records are being rewritten by Henri Saivet and Damien Le Tallec. The Bordeaux attacker Saivet is averaging 0.75+ goals/game, with a ton of assists, too. Damien has 16 goals in 20 matches. Yes, these are U-17 stats, though keep in mind that Benzema wasn't that big a star coming up, as his buddies Ben Arfa, Nasri and Ménez were ahead of him in the minds of many. Of course now, none of that matters, as both he and Nasri have established themselves as fixtures in the NT. Both Ben Arfa and Ménez will as well, one would think.
he was just tried to pay the greatest compliment he could think of! which makes me think of two other comparisons... first melonitis: benzema seems to have got all his shots against it, whereas cissé and trezeguet have been badly infected since birth. anelka had a very bad case in his youth, but it was cured by very prolonged and painful treatment. henry also apparently had the proper vaccinations, but missed a booster somewhere along the way. let's hope karim's case is like saha's, who has shown remarkably little swelling in an environment where the ailment is almost pandemic. but for injuries, benzema also seems to share saha's knack for nagging knacks... let's hope he avoids that kind of history, and above all doesn't have cissé's tragic bad luck.
I am maxxed out on handing out reputation, so I need to spread the love before I can give you some for that great post, Guingol. Right now Benzema is 19, so he still knows that he has a long way to go before he reaches the heights of Henry and Trezeguet. But I hope he always retains his manner.
I think that you've singled out Benzema's biggest strength over his rivals right there, Inara. After watching Ménez today in the Espoirs game have a couple of silly plays (some recklessness with the ball and an elbow in the final minute, which, had it been caught, would have gotten a sending off), the reason why Benzema's developed this quickly is because of character, as in, he doesn't have any character issues. Ménez, to his credit, did have a decent match in the end, though, but man, occasionally you want to yell at the screen to shout "stop being so stupid!" In any event, the good thing for France is that the aforementioned Henri Saivet does appear to have a level head on his shoulders. He reportedly has refused offers from Inter and Juve to stay at Bordeaux where Blanc will tutor him. Back to Benzema, though, it's quite impressive the development he's had during the past couple of years. To be able to do it a big club such as OL who are challenging for titles across the continent makes it even that much more so.
two blurbs in maxifoot today mention him: Jean-Pierre Papin doesn't mince words about today's generation of strikers. Except for Karim Benzema who he constantly praises, the RC Lens manager feels modern offensive players aren't complete "strikers like iI used to be?" I don't have any at Lens. I have a scorer (Pieroni) and a provocateur (Dindane). Strikers who know how to do it all don't exist anymore. There's always something or other missing". At yesterday's press conference Lilian Thuram came to the microphone and said he was very impressed with his young teammate Karim Benzema. "Benzema is a truly great striker; he's only 19 ans but i assure you he's very mature for his age. So it's perfectly normal that people talk about him as a starter".
I'm really sorry to just come in like this and ask, but just how ready is Benzema? Is he ready to move to a big club? [Haha, I know that hurt ] Okay, jokes aside, I've read speculation linking us to him and while I know Aulas can be a real grand con with negotiations, I'm confident we might be in with a chance. I basically want as much information as I can get if you guys are kind enough. He didn't seem to have the best of games against Barca a couple of months ago, but he's still learning I suppose. Cheers
I think it'd be more appropriate if a Lyon supporter answered your question, but how's this, I think he's ready to start at Real right now. I mean, he's better than the other "French" guy that you have on that team, he's better than Higuaín (J/K, Higuaín is actually Argentinian though he's carrying a French passport so he doesn't take up a non-Euro spot on the roster). The game against Barca was arguably his worst this season, but as a Madrileño I understand why that is important to you.
Well thats saying something, because he'd be competing with Raul, Ruud, Saviola, Soldado and Baptista. Is he really THAT good or is he just hitting a purple patch of form? His figures are pretty impressive but I haven't been able to catch L1 as much as I'd have liked.
Don't think he'd be ahead of Ruud or Raúl, though it's certainly been a while since Saviola was impressive, Baptista may as well not have put on an Arsenal uniform (though I know he was good when he was at Sevilla), and I can't comment on Soldado since I haven't seen him. With Benzema, it's really not only about his goalscoring prowess, though that's definitely been on display this season with him leading the charts. He's a complete striker. Ideally, I think you would pair him with Ruud up front with Raúl a bit behind as the supporting striker.
Yeah exactly. Youve already got an embarassment of riches so you really dont need him now. The only reason you want him is because you can have any one you want. You should drop Madrid and support a "real" club like Lyon.
For the first part, I believe we are linked to Benzema because Ruud is 31 and Raul is 30. I feel Ruud cant go more than 1 season more at top level football, and Baptista looks all set to leave. I certainly won't complain if we buy Karim. With regard to the 2nd part, nice try but I'm not budging . I like French football and I have an interest in OM and OL but thats as far as it goes
I don't know how receptive you expect OL fans to be after hearing the news that a 'super' club is trying to poach one of our young stars.
Its just random media speculation that made me interested in him in the first place. I wanted to know how he would rank relative to the other Madrid players, just for my understanding. You can be as receptive or as hostile you want man, but in my honest opinion, unless OL send shockwaves in the CL, he's going to move on sooner or later, unless he's of those Alan Shearer types.
Whos being hostile? All I'm saying is i'm not willing to discuss one of my favorite players leaving the club during the season.
Listen. Lyon would love to be at the level of your team but how are they ever supposed to get there if their best players leave every year ? I know its not your problem and you dont care but you need to see it from the other side. Its very hard for a French team to become a super club like Madrid because there are many obstacles they have to over come. There can never be any 'Chelsea's' in France because the rules are different here. The super clubs know this and they use their predatory tactics to their full advantage to poach French talent.
that's just what gripes us... the way the "super clubs" do their recruitment: random media speculation and a couple of videos of a player and they're ready to plunk down 30M€ to put him on their bench... if he doesn't pan out, no biggie! the oil baron (or the american hedge fund, or the king) isn't down to his last 30 mil by any means! taking a 14 year old in your academy, and turning him into a benzema, ben arfa, giuly, kanouté... that's for LOSERS! hey, we're used to it. but karim's a smart cookie and realizes he's better off playing for OL than sitting the bench at barçenal so my guess is that sooner is summer of 2009, later is still open. in any case he's not leaving france until the euro's over.
I'm sure you guys remember the old days. When Papin was at OM he dominated France for 6 years before he went abroad. 6 years is a lifetime in todays world. Now you'd be lucky to keep a scorer like that around for maybe 2 years. No one thinks Benzema will last 6 years here but in the old days he would. Im not sure the exact reason why guys like Papin and Platini would stay longer in France then their current equivilents would now. Probably because of the Bosman rule I guess. The increased media attention there is now is probably another factor. I wasnt around back then so I dont know if there were rumors of guys like Lacombe and Bianchi who dominated France leaving after they had 1 good season. Probably not I reckon.
Haha, first of all let me assure you that isn't the way that Real Madrid atleast goes about its business. And in our defence, we're the richest club in the world on our own merits, but thats a story for another day. Hey, I feel for you guys and I think its fantastic how year after year you guys are forced to sell your best players [Essien, then next year Diarra, now Malouda and Abidal etc etc]but still manage to do so well in the league and in the CL and its brilliant how OL seem to posess the ability to churn out prospect after prospect like Ben Arfa and Benzema. Toulalan and Clerc have also looked good from what I've seen of them. If you knew me, you'd know that I'm all against a youngster ruining his career by moving to a big club ['s reserve team] before he's ready and then going off the radar completely.The way I see it, if he's good enough, let him show it on the biggest stage, but only when he's ready for it . Which is next summer --- England is where your hate should be directed! They don't have a youth system and they're the main culprits with this poaching thing! You should take it as a good thing that we're 'taking Karim off your hands' instead of letting him stick around for that bugger Russian oil mafia man to take him to Chelsea! Forget Clairefontaine, in England they don't have any fontaine
You mentioned that Real Madrid are rich on their own merits - Lyon got to where they are on their own merits too, and if I might add, with a lot more difficulty. When you look at where OL was 20 years ago and where it is now, and if you consider the difficulties L1 clubs face that are unique only to France, you can understand why Lyon fans are so touchy. We've been winning for the past several years, but we haven't been able to enjoy it because as soon as we win a title, the vultures start circling over our heads picking out which players they want to snatch away. I suppose we're supposed to be flattered when rich titled clubs with a long histories are interested in our players, but we're not. We're hostile because as soon as our players perform well, they get taken away. So in France, being good comes with a price.
Don't be upset madridismi, it's an epidermic reaction. We're sick of seeing, every year, not ONLY our best players, but many others too, leaving France for Italy-Spain-England. Every year we cry on what we call looting. In other times players left only were they were fantastic, and already matured ! Platini was 27 when he won the title with Saint-Etienne ! Papin left to Milan at 28 - yes, twenty-eight years old ! Now who's leaving late ? Malouda (27) and Abidal (28) because only Lyon could give them a real challenge. I hold against a bunch of crappy chairmen, too, who are responsible for me to have destroyed our greatest clubs. Yes, we earn often a lot of money with those players, but we can't use it because nobody wants to come here now ! This summer we almost turned crazy because Reyes preferred sit on Atletico's bench rather than being THE star of Ligue 1 in Lyon. We're now full of nostalgy, rethinking about our Golden Nineties, when the process of development of French football initiated during the 70's was beginning to and just before Bosman law breaks all that. We're dreaming on old OM (Papin, Waddle, Deschamps), old PSG (Weah, Ginola, Raï), old Monaco (too many stars to count them). And now Benzema !! Already sent to Madrid ! But God, he's just NINETEEN ! He's a KID ! He's only playing his FIRST full season with Lyon ! He was injured last year ! Good ol' times when another pure Lyonnais, Bernard Lacombe, the French recordman of goals scored in Ligue 1, was making ALL his career at Lyon. Because of was fond of his club. He only left... in the interest of his club because OL needed money. Raul, Maldini or Giggs are called "loyal" to their clubs, how hypocrit, it's easy to be loyal to Real, Milan or Manchester ! I'd like to see top-class players to be loyal to Marseille or Lyon !