Real Madrid’s successful season in La Liga 2021-2022 will be linked to the brilliance of striker Karim Benzema.
The French sniper scored his 26th goal in 30 league matches the day before yesterday to complete Real’s 4-0 victory over Espanyol and settle his 35th league title, consolidating his record four games before the end.
Benzema’s season has been stellar and it took the 34-year-old striker some time to become an indispensable captain and the most influential player in the team that searched for an icon after the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo four years ago.
Benzema turned into a ruthless goalscorer in front of goal without losing his ability to go back and help build attacks from deeper areas.
Benzema scored 35% of Real’s 73 goals in the league this season, and also provided 11 assists.
Benzema has continued to develop and improve over the last three years.
Without Ronaldo, Benzema became Real’s top scorer in all competitions with 30 goals, along with 11 assists in the 2018-2019 season, then scored 27 goals, and provided 11 assists in 2019-2020, then scored 30 goals and nine assists in the 2020-2021 season.
But he exploded all his energies this season, the best of his career, as he scored 42 goals in 42 matches in all competitions, more than twice what any other player scored in the first division in Spain.
In the Spanish League, Benzema scored impressive goals in 18 matches, and helped Real win 43 points out of a total of 81, whether by opening the scoring or confirming victories.
He surpassed the legend Alfredo Di Stefano (308 goals) earlier this season in the club’s all-time top scorer, and now needs three goals to pass Raul (323 goals) in second place, while Ronaldo leads the way (450 goals).
Long trip
In 13 seasons with Real, Benzema won the Champions League four times, the Spanish League four times, the Club World Cup four times, as well as three European Super Cup titles, the King’s Cup twice, and the Spanish Super Cup four times.
But the journey was long and he was criticized at the beginning of his tenure for the lack of consistency and lack of commitment.
Back in 2010, then Real coach Jose Mourinho used a metaphor to express his feelings about Benzema, saying: “I’m going to go hunting because I don’t have a dog.”
The title “Cat” was associated with Benzema, who is now glowing with Real and the French national team, which he returned to last year, after an absence of six years.
After a scandal of blackmail and a comment about France coach Didier Deschamps’ bowing “in the face of pressure from the racist side of France” when the striker, a Muslim of Algerian roots, was excluded from the Euro 2016 squad, he was excluded from the international arena.
But he returned to score with his country, as he does in the club.
It would be very difficult to avoid voting for Benzema for the award for the best player in the world at last.
He scored a hat-trick to lead Real’s comeback against Paris Saint-Germain in a 3-1 victory to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Champions League, after winning 3-2 on the aggregate score.
Then he starred in the next round and scored another hat-trick against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, and the decisive goal on a breathtaking night at the Bernabeu, to lead the Madrid team to the semi-finals.
After a double in the first leg of the semi-final against Manchester City, Bayern Munich star Robert Lewandowski became the top scorer in the Champions League this season, with 14 goals in 10 matches.
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