Why brilliant Benzema is thriving in his thirties
IF Karim Benzema did not play for Real Madrid, fans of Manchester City would have booked their flights to Paris by now. Benzema kept his team in their Champions League semi-final, just as he has propelled them to dominate La Liga this year.
The wonderful images of the amiable Carlo Ancelotti puffing on a large cigar as he celebrated Real Madrid’s title are a result of Benzema’s remarkable form: 29 league starts, 26 goals, to go with 10 European starts and 14 goals. Including his performances for France, Benzema has scored 47 times this season. His longest barren run for his club has been just two games.
Of all Real Madrid’s players, Benzema has been the one to come bustling out of Cristiano Ronaldo’s shadow, but his success this season runs deeper than that. This is about more than now being able to occupy position A in the penalty box. This is about always knowing where position A will be.
Benzema is 34 now, an age at which a striker was thought to be finished.
It was goalkeepers who matured with age, goalkeepers who took a decade or more to learn their craft. The best goalscorers were long gone by then. Jimmy Greaves made his Tottenham debut in 1961 at the age of 21, the same year Dino Zoff played his first game for Udinese, at 19. By the time Zoff kept goal for Italy at the 1982 World Cup, Greaves had been out of the professional game for 11 years.
So goalkeepers got the chance to pour all of that wisdom and experience, into a long career. Zoff was 40 when he won the World Cup. There was nothing about his trade he did not know. That is Benzema, now. This is his 18th season as a professional footballer, 18 years of working out where to stand, when to go, where to move, how to disappear and reappear as the greatest goalscorers do.
Time was, it would be over by now. Just as it was falling most naturally into place, just as it was clearer than ever what was needed, Benzema’s body would have been letting him down.
No more. Strikers now last longer than ever and leagues contain a new breed of goalscorer, playing longer than before, able to use experience to the maximum: Jamie Vardy, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Cristiano Ronaldo. Ciro Immobile, top goalscorer in Italy, is 32.
Talking with Peter Schmeichel, he made another point about Benzema. He’s old-fashioned. A lot of modern strikers, even the most potent ones such as Mo Salah, are glorified midfield players. Salah attacks from the flanks, or from deep – he’s not a central No 9. Benzema is.
He wants to hold that position, lead that line, wants to get physical, play high, wants to use his innate gift for movement to its best effect. Defenders are not used to dealing with that these days. Benzema unsettles them. Oleksandr Zinchenko thought he was in a good position for Madrid’s first goal last week. He thought he had his man covered. He didn’t.
Benzema beat him to the ball, cushioned his volley into the net. Zinchenko probably won’t face another opponent capable of that this season. Manchester City won’t face another striker of his calibre, either. They are hoping to buy one in Erling Haaland this summer; hoping that, in 13 years’ time, he’ll still be just as good as Benzema is now.