Real Madrid's Karim Benzema: "I am at the service of the team, not Ronaldo and Bale"

What’s the Story

During an interview on Radio Montecarlo with former French international Christophe Dugarry, Real Madrid superstar Karim Benzema opened up about various issues, chief among them being the question of his future with the European Champions.

It would be a dream to finish my career at Real Madrid. There are no other clubs that light up my future like Madrid. I am at the service of the team, not Ronaldo or Bale. I play for the group.

While answering with all the right amount of love being shown to his current employer, he also took a totally unprovoked dig at his more illustrious strike partners Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale.

He did, of course, praise Ronaldo separately, saying:

“I understand Cristiano well, we have a mutual understanding and it is easy to play on his side. He always wants to win and score goals, including at training.”

But his earlier answer suggests that things are far from straightforward with the famed ‘BBC‘ trio

In case you didn’t know

Karim Benzema has been in decent form recently, and has recovered from a slow start to 2016/17 to net some valuable goals.

He continues to, however, remain outside the French national team setup and as he said during the interview this is something that continues to hurt him.

The heart of the matter

As the ever-astute Sunny Sagar observed on this very site – “ the Frenchman is widely disliked among the Madridista fanbase, who view him as a sub-optimal centre-forward. That view is a bit harsh on Benzema, whose ‘sacrificial’ style of play allows the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale to flourish.” In fact, when AS did a survey of 20,000 Madrid fans, 88% wanted the Frenchman gone!

Despite his unpopularity amongst the fan base, Zidane continues to place his faith in his compatriot because of how important he is to the system. This is what Benzema was commenting on when he said that he is at the service of the team. The most ‘selfless’ of the BBC, it is an easy assumption to make that he subjugates himself to Bale and Ronaldo, but he wanted to set the record straight on that one.

What Next?

Karim Benzema looks set to enjoy at least another season wearing the famous all-white. Florentino Perez remains an ardent fan, recently saying "Karim is the best number 9 in the world. If it was up to me he'd be at Madrid for life. I'm so happy with Benzema" as does Zidane. It will be interesting to see, however, how Bale and Ronaldo respond to this.

Author’s take

Karim Benzema is a woefully underrated player and a proper striker that many a team’s manager would give an arm and a leg to get. Zidane realises this, and is utilising him properly in the system. As for the comment itself – While on the face of it, Benzema’s comments imply a dig at his teammates, I believe it is merely his frustration boiling over at being overlooked and indeed looked down upon whenever Madrid’s attack clicks, and being made the scapegoat whenever it doesn’t. Merely human of him to feel such emotions