The real king of European football.
So now what happens to Karim Benzema? | Hat-tricks, lots of hat-tricks
- Thread starter shamans
- Start date
He's not bad.
He has aged superbly
I don't know if someone answered this in the matchday thread, but has there been back to back hat tricks in knockout games of the CL before? He's outstanding.
If he wins the league and Champs league this season, any chance he fancies a move to Man City or even PSG to get a last few years in a different league (and mental money)?
IIRC Ronaldo scored one against Bayern in the QFs and then another one against Atletico in the SFs in 2017.
Yes, that's a good shout that one, I wonder if there's anyone else we're forgetting in the modern era but no one comes to mind, it's a pretty ridiculous stat to be fair at this stage of the competittion.
Nop. All of them epic goals, specially the Karius one.
Edit: only him and Ronnie have this one in the CL Sarius
The world is lucky that Benzema and Guardiola have never been united.
Should be discussed and one of the greatest strikers of all time.
The summer of 2009 will live in infamy.
The summer of 2009 will live in infamy.
I don't think there is.
Ronaldo's the only one.
He scored 8 goals in 3 games vs Bayern(5 in 2) and Atletico(3 in 1). Ridiculous when you think about it.
I doubt. He is Madrid through and through
Unless Lewandowski answers back with crazy performances and win the CL I think Benzema should win the ballon d'or
Salah's form has gone down and Mbappe sadly got knocked out way too early
Salah's form has gone down and Mbappe sadly got knocked out way too early
Only need another 4 hat tricks to carry us to the cup
Absurd just how good he is
Also, surprisingly, Mbappe isn’t even the topscorer in his own league despite how far ahead PSG are of the rest. It should be Benzema’s BDOR to lose.
The first couple of pages of this thread look absolutely mental now. What a player.
Yes but also what a twat, crazy he’s been charged for blackmail but it’s all conveniently forgotten (that aside if we are to divorce the art from the artist, what an artist)
Worst of all is that is was FOUR years ago, and people were suggesting he be a back up striker somewhere, or go to Qatar or somewhere
Imagine him actually winning a BdOr after being mauled by almost everyone for an entire career.
Edit: think it's about 5th time I say it but I'd honestly take him at United, although he won't come
It's forgotten because people didn't really care for him for many years. He was never a star who was always in the news.
Even today, on Football pages I see very less posts about him. He lacks that aura imo.
I think it's because he's been out of the spotlight for so long. Credit to him for ageing so well.
He will have a long night with all the mentions in instagram
Too many idiotic takes in the first couple of pages
We really should have moved heaven and earth to get him after his Lyon days.
If rumours are true United offered more money to Lyon and Benzema. Benzema is a fan of Real Madrid, he was never going to go somewhere else and my guess is that only Lyon could have him outside of Real.
Fair fecks then. I remember SAF being a fan but I didn't know we actually offered more money than Real. Shame. What a footballer
Aulas said that United and Real Madrid were the two teams that made an offer but Benzema told him that his dream was to play for Real Madrid, so Aulas picked the lower offer.
Eh. It was 2018, he was coming off a inconsistent season followed by an outright bad one, had never looked like a genuine #1 option for a top side until that point with us and was in his 30s. A lot of his value for us was tied to playing second fiddle to Cristiano
Kudos to him for turning into the best player in the world in his 30s
I'll say it once again: best late peak of all time.
Yeah tbh people will always look back on early posts for players who turned out amazing, or just managed to find their way out of a dip of form. But how many threads are there where the first few disparaging posts were proven right? Probably equally as many.
The BT sport commentator said only Benzema, Messi and Ronaldo have done back to hat tricks in the champions league. Not sure if he mentioned knockout rounds specifically though.
I standby what I said. There were clear mitigating factors explaining his performances the season before. All people needed to have is a little patience before writing off a player like him. It's ok though, we've all said stupid stuff on the caf once before. The man did show, albeit a long time ago, he could be the main guy up front for a good european team.
Messi will win it don't worry.
Aside from proving that Benzema is one of the best it also goes to show that what an individuals role in a team can do for his stats and how he stands out. It would be very hard for Benzema to put up numbers like with while being the work horse for Ronaldo. You saw Rooney's numbers also suddenly grow exponentially when Ronaldo left but unfortunately he got that horrible injury to hault his run.
@kouroux meant the final 2 seasons during Zidane first stints. Benzema numbers were very underwhelming. Drop off the cliff compared to his own standard (under 20 goals total in 2 consecutive seasons, and the second looked even worse with 5 goals in 32 La Liga appearances). Nothing to do with his role.
Last edited:
I wonder if it would have been possible if he had the 5-6 years missed of international football added to his mileage. Regardless, it's extraordinary how well he's taken care of himself, and he's not really out there managing his energy much, the man is all over the place. 50 goal involvements in 36 games, just incredible and Lewandowski is right behind with 49 in 39 games at 33 years of age. It's a testament to discipline and sports science that we're seeing this now.
Last edited:
I agree.
This is why I never rated Messi that much as others.
He had the whole team tick tocking the ball and working for him in a way that no other team played like and Messi then seemed like the best Cherry on top of the best ingredients of a cake.
This. Despite that bad season by his standards, what he showed at Lyon and the few rare moments Ronaldo wasn't playing in his better seasons at Madrid were reasons enough for me to be patient.
However I never expected him to reach this season's level. He's been marvelous
Who would have thought in 2018, that the answer to this thread would have been that he becomes the best player in the world? Staggering turnaround, although maybe he just decided to shell himself when Ronaldo was there to help get the best out of CR, which would make it even more admirable.