Benzema's Flop Days Finally Over?
Tim Stannard
Normally the presidential box in football is reserved for club-running big-wigs to burp and poot away for 90 minutes as they digest their pre-match dinners whilst watching a sport most of them neither like nor understand.
That's certainly the case for Real Madrid's head honcho Florentino Pérez, whose jowly, sullen face sometimes pops up on the television screens staring morosely at the action on the pitch whilst the mathematical thought process runs through his head of 'salaries × cash blown on superstars = how many goals Real Madrid should be beating this minion opposition by. But they're not! It's not fair! Need to sack someone! Meh!'
One activity the box certainly shouldn't be used for is displaying emotion of any kind. But that protocol was broken in Lyon in some style by the Madrid president himself in their Champions League last-16, first-leg match when Karim Benzema came off the bench to score a lovely second-half effort for the visitors. The strike saw Pérez leaping to his feet and giving the Frenchman a bit of a clap.
It wasn't just that Benzema's goal took Madrid one tiny step further to reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the first time in seven years that sent Pérez a bit potty - a late equaliser for Lyon means that there is still work to be done in the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday - it's just that the club president had an awful lot of his personal stake riding on the success of the sulky French striker, having gone to the lengths of traveling to Benzema's family home to secure his signing.
Of the three big names Florentino Pérez brought to the club on his return to Madrid in the summer of 2009, Cristiano Ronaldo has been an unqualified success, Kaká has been an abject failure but Karim Benzema has constantly flitted been between the two.
'This explains the rare excesses of Florentino who didn't even react that way to Zidane's goal in Glasgow or the best scored by Madrid this century,' wrote AS editor Alfredo Relaño.
After a season and a half at Madrid, the former Lyon forward was still failing to put in the required effort and commitment required by José Mourinho and this was reflected in a paltry goal tally in la Liga which had Benzema well behind the seven strikes scored by Gonzalo Higuaín, a player who had been out of action since the beginning of November. 'He's a shadow in football boots,' sighed one columnist after another forgettable performance.
Benzema certainly didn't help his case with his personality, which can be described as sullen to the press and even to his team-mates. However, a large chunk of his attitude is due to shyness, a lack of confidence with the Spanish language and an understandably adverse reaction to the enormous pressure Benzema was under to finally deliver on his potential.
But in recent months, the 35m Euro man has perked up considerably and has taken the prodigious work-rate of the absentee Higuaín that Mourinho admires so much and welded it to his fine finishing abilities. A player who has been bumped off and resurrected more times than Den Watts in the local press is now officially back to life again after his Champions League goal was followed by braces in Madrid's most recent league wins against Málaga, Racing and Hércules to take Benzema to nine in la Liga.
The last of those victories came on Saturday night with Benzema scoring both goals in a comfortable 2-0 win and even featured the Frenchman breaking into a smile after the game as he explained why he was finally finding his form: "I've been working hard in training and you can see the results in games."
Benzema has now scored 19 goals in all competitions, but a lot of those efforts were 'invisible goals' as described in Marca, such as the three against Levante in an 8-0 Copa Del Rey win and the hat-trick against Auxerre in a Champions League dead rubber.
The Frenchman's renaissance couldn't have come at a better time for Madrid with the club losing Cristiano Ronaldo and his 27 league goals for the last two Primera clashes with an ankle injury and the prospect of Lyon on Wednesday night, a game he is expected to start ahead of Emmanuel Adebayor.
It was the Togo striker who began the tie in Lyon, a tactical move from Mourinho which forced a distraught Benzema to text his parents not to bother coming to the Stade Gerland to watch the clash between their son's former and current clubs.
Real Madrid will have an extra spring in their step going into Wednesday's clash and for the visit to Atlético Madrid's Vicente Calderón stadium on Saturday as the gap at the top of the table has been closed to five with Barcelona dropping points away from home for the first time in 20 league games with a 1-1 draw at Sevilla. It was a perfectly respectable result, as pointed out by Pep Guardiola, but not in an environment where Barça have been so flawless that any slight stumble is heralded as a club crisis in the Madrid media.
The 'real Benzema is back!' headlines have been published a few times already this season only for the French striker to fall back into a footballing funk. But on this occasion, it really does appear that Benzema has finally begun to respond to the complaints from his manager that he needs to put in the miles to be trusted to lead the line in Mourinho's Madrid.
For the first time in nearly two years at the Bernabeu, Benzema is looking sharp, hungry but perhaps most importantly of all, Madrid's French striker is looking happy
---------------
I wonder... let's see if you will be eating a humble pie end of this season or proven right
for sure he is showing his talents lately , i'll give him that much cause he deserved it truly
