Avoiding the Drop

Karim Benzema gets ready for the £15 Meter Long that he can now afford.

Karim Benzema is the biggest player that nobody’s seen this offseason; while lots of people have fawned over the skills of Kaka and Ronaldo, most talk of Benzema revolves around the “He’s pretty good, too.” In fact, I’d imagine that the vast majority of the cultured and educated readers of our blog have not seen more than one or two Benzema performances.

Still, the simple fact that Benzema’s scored 54 goals in his last 99 games makes him a crazily valued commodity on the international market for strikers. Anyone who can score better than one every other game has the potential to be a huge transfer target, and when it comes to hitting their transfer targets Real Madrid have been the Robin Hood of this year’s silly season.

So following on the heels of Madrid’s deals for Kaka and Ronaldo, the Spanish club has announced their third major signing of the summer: Karim Benzema, for a relatively modest £30 million, will leave France and come to Spain.

Unlike the Kaka and Ronaldo deals, though, this deal carries a little bit of a risk. Kaka was a major player for a top club side, as well as an international player with fantastic performances behind him; his value to the club, both as a leader and as a playmaker, is readily apparent to anyone who’s seen him play or heard him talk. He brings a focus to the team both on and off the pitch. Ronaldo, while maybe less of a “role model” style of player, is unquestionably one of, if not THE, best players in the game; he’s proven that both in European competitions and in the most competitive league in the world.

Benzema’s a little different. He has undoubtedly been the best player in France over the last two seasons. At the same time, though, he’s young and playing in a league that’s not known for being incredibly competitive when compared to the other major European leagues. In fact, Benzema wasn’t even Ligue 1′s leading scorer last season; that honor belongs to André-Pierre Gignac of Toulouse, who had 24 goals to Benzema’s 17.

The price tag is relatively low compared to what was being reported earlier, where sums of £50 million or higher were being touted as the going rate. This is also the third major offensive signing for Real Madrid; when you consider that Los Blancos were the second highest scoring team in La Liga, you’d think that the offensive side of the ball might not be the area they needed to improve the most on.