Karim Mostafa Benzema, a French professional footballer who plays as a striker for La Liga team Real Madrid and serves as its captain, was born on December 19, 1987. He is regarded as one of the greatest strikers in history and is a talented forward known for his ability to score goals as well as his technical abilities, vision, and adaptability on the pitch. He is second all-time in goals scored and assists given for Real Madrid.24 trophies have been won by Benzema at Real Madrid, including five UEFA Champions League wins, four La Liga championships, and three Copa del Rey crowns.
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Born in Lyon to parents from Algeria, Benzema started his professional career in 2005 with Olympique Lyonnais, where he intermittently helped the team achieve three Ligue 1 championships. He received the league's Player of the Year award in 2008. In 2009, Benzema was the subject of a then-French record football move when he joined Genuine Madrid in an arrangement worth €35 million. Subsequent to attempting to set up a good foundation for himself in his presentation season, he in the long run accomplished a predictable goalscoring rate with the club, prominently being essential for a profoundly evaluated threesome close by Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bundle — named BBC — who were basic to four Bosses Association wins from 2014 to 2018. Following Ronaldo's takeoff in 2018, Benzema progressed from the bogus 9 situation into a sole striker. He was named in the La Liga Group of the Time for four back to back a long time from 2018 to 2022, won La Liga Best Player two times and the Pichichi Prize without precedent for 2022. Benzema completed as Champions Association top scorer as he came out on top for his fifth championship in 2022.
At the age of eight, Benzema started playing football for his hometown team, Bron Terraillon SC. His teammates gave him the nickname "Coco" while he was a member of the team, and after he scored two goals against the Lyon youth academy in a match for under-10s, the largest club in the area started to take notice. According to Serge Santa Cruz, who served as president of Bron Terraillon in the 1990s, representatives from Lyon personally approached him in an effort to recruit the young player. The team agreed to let Benzema take part in a trial with Lyon after speaking with the player's father. After the trial, Benzema joined Lyon formally and was accepted into the team's academy.
A French international, Benzema won the 2004 UEFA European Under-17 Championship and made his senior debut for France in 2007, at age 19. He earned 97 caps, including scoring in three and appearing in four major tournaments, and ranks as France's sixth-highest all-time top goalscorer. Benzema was controversially left out of the squad for the 2010 World Cup and did not play for France for over five years after being implicated in a blackmailing scandal in 2015; he later returned to the squad before announcing his international retirement in December 2022. He has been named French Player of the Year by France Football four times. For his performances in 2021 and 2022, Benzema was awarded the UEFA Player of the Year and the Ballon d'Or, becoming the fifth French player to have won the Ballon d'Or. At 34 years and 302 days old, he is the second-oldest winner of the award, after Stanley Matthews.
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