Karim Benzema

Name: Karim Benzema

Age: 20

Position: Striker

Current Club: Olympique Lyonnais

Current Value: £6,500,000

Current Wages: £60,000 p/w

Background:

Having come through the ranks in Lyons academy, Benzema had a quiet few years before exploding onto the radar in the 06/07 season when he scored 24 goals in 37 games. Since then he has gone on to represent France 19 times, scoring 5 goals in the process.

Strengths:

Benzema’s top attributes are:

Acceleration: 17

Off The Ball: 17

Composure: 16

Flair: 16

Finishing: 16

Technique: 16

These attributes make Benzema a good, fast target striker

Weaknesses:

His weakest attributes are:

Marking: 4

Tackling: 4

Aggression: 6

So don’t stick him in defence, or expect him to tackle players running back past him.

Training:

For Benzema’s training schedule I’ve put everything except Goalkeeping, Ball Control, Tactics and Defending up on high, so that he gets better in everything and keeps his top attributes at their max.

In A Match:

Benzema’s plays best as a through and through Striker, but with his attributes I see no reason as to why he can’t play in AMC to support the striker/strikers in the first team. Now as AMC is not one of his positions at all, you would have to train him in that position and gently ease him into it. As for individual player instructions, Benzema could have Forward Runs set to ‘Often’ so that he can try to get ahead of the defence.

Potential:

Benzema is fairly young and has good stats for his age, and it looks like he could improve a lot in the coming years, in my opinion he could be as good as Thiery Henry or Ruud Van Nistelrooy.

Signing Him:

Wow is this lad hard to get hold of. It took a bid of £41million just to get Lyon to start negotiations. After much haggling, including Lyon asking for £65million, I managed to have a £50million bid accepted. So, only go after him if you have money, and lots of it.

Overall:

Overall I feel Benzema would fit in well to any team playing in Europe or striving for domestic success, and he is a fantastic prospect for the future, however, his huge price tag means not many clubs will be able to afford him.

TB’s Recommended Rating:- 6/10. Quality striker capable of playing for the big boys, shame about his price tag.