Personal

Full name:	Karim Benzema
Birth Date:	19th December, 1987
Place of Birth:	Lyon, France
Height:	1.84 metres, 6 ’1″
Weight:	83.5 kg

Professional

Position:

Striker

Club

Real Madrid

Joined On:	9th July, 2009
First Game:	21st July, 2009
Jersey No:	19
Appearances:	4
Goals Scored:	3

Lyon

Joined In:	1996
First Game:	15th January, 2005
Jersey No:	10
Appearances:	112
Goals Scored:	43

France

First Game:	28th March, 2007
Jersey No:	10
Appearances:	25
Goals Scored:	6

Awards

Lyon
Ligue 1: 2004–05, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08
Trophée Des Champions: 2006, 2007
Peace Cup: 2007
Coupe de France: 2008

France
UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship: 2004

Individual
Ligue 1 Top Goalscorer: 2007–08
Ligue 1 Player of the Year: 2007–08
Ligue 1 Team of the Year: 2007–08
UNFP Player of the Month: January 2008
Bravo Award: 2008

Biography

Benzema was born in Lyon,France and is of Algerian-Kabyle descent, this qualified him to play for either national team. He grew up with nine siblings and his father Hafid in the district of Bron. Benzema came through the youth academy at Lyon. Before joining Lyon, he trained at local Rhône-Alpes club Bron Terraillon SC in the commune Bron, a suburb of Lyon. Karim was spotted by Lyon scoutsand he  joined the academy in 1996 at the age of 9.

In the 2007–08 season, with the likes of Florent Malouda, John Carew, and Sylvain Wiltord all departing from Lyon, Benzema, despite being 19 at the time, switched to the number 10 shirt and was inserted into the lead striker role and has not looked back since then.

On 9th July 2009, he transferred to Real Madrid for around €41 million with a six-year contract and made his debut on 20th July in the opening pre-season friendly. He came on as a halftime substitute and scored the lone goal in the club’s 1–0 win.

His international career with France has also been a tremendous one. France coach Raymond Domenech saw the striker’s potential early and realized that he would need to stake his claim to keep Karim from playing for Algeria. He was called up to the Algerian squad by the Fédération Algérienne de Football in December 2006 , but politetly turned them down saying-

“Algeria is my parents’ country and it is in my heart, but football-wise I will only play for the French national team.”

Videos

Professional

Video 1

Personal

Interesting Facts

1) According to Olympique Lyonnais tradition, every new player must say a few words to his new teammates. When it was Karim’s turn to direct himself at his teammates, rather than taking offense to the jokes from veterans like Elber, Wiltord anr Mahamadou Diarra, he limited himself to saying, “Don’t laugh. I am here to steal your spot!” A statement showing his true intentions and that stunned the dressing room.

2) Benzema has said on numerous occasions that Brazilian striker Ronaldo, the three-time FIFA world player of the year, and not Zidane is his real hero. “He’s my idol, the best player of all time as far I’m concerned,” Benzema said. “I’ve got loads of DVDs of him in action and I watch them all the time. It’s a little embarrassing when people compare me to him – I’ve still got plenty of room for progress and I’m just trying to continue working hard; if I can have a career a little bit like his, well, that would be extraordinary.”

3) When Houllier stepped down from the Lyon hot-seat, his successor, Alain Perrin, gave Benzema a more important role in the team. And he responded to his manager’s faith by smashing in 24 goals in 37 games in the 2006/07 season.

Sources

wikipedia.org
www.mirror.co.uk
realmadrid.com
www.karimbenzema.info