It’s an evening he won’t soon forget as it was emotionally charged. This Monday, October 17, Karim Benzema became the fifth French player in history to win the Ballon d’Or, football’s most prestigious individual award. The last before him was none other than Zinedine Zidane, present on stage to give him the trophy. A real consecration for the 34-year-old player, who seems to improve with age and appears today as the best striker in the world. However, it is difficult to imagine such a trajectory for the kid from Lyon, who arrived at Real Madrid in 2009 and who had to bide his time during the years when Cristiano Ronaldo was the star of the team.
A reward that crowns an incredible career and Karim Benzema had the chance to have all his relatives with him at the Châtelet theatre. His new companion Jordan Ozuna was obviously there and she took the opportunity to send him a very nice message after the event. With a track record as long as your arm and in particular 5 Champions League trophies to his credit, the Blues striker is one of the very best French players in history. However, these exploits are not enough to make him a legend of our football if we are to believe one of the most listened to and popular specialists in the country. Invited to speak on the show Rothen ignites on RMC, Jean-Michel Larque wanted to make things clear. “Don’t overuse the word legend, because otherwise everyone will become a legend”he launches in the preamble.
He is a huge player in French football but he is not a legend
If he does not question the immense talent of the one nicknamed KB9, the former sidekick of the late Thierry Roland does not think that we can put him at the level of the greatest. “In French football, there are three legends : for the older ones, there is Kopawho was an exceptional player and who won several European cups for champion clubs with Real, there is Platini and Zinedine Zidane”summarizes the 75-year-old man, before concluding: “I think today that for Karim, at Real, he is a legend, he is a major Real player. He is a huge player in French football but he is not a legend. If he wins the World Cup, we’ll see.”.