the new striker talent
karim benzema
karim benzema profile
karim benzema france
profile
Full Name: Karim Benzema
Birth Date: December 19, 1987
Birth Place: Lyon, France
Height: 1.83m
Weight: 73 kg
Age: 21
Position: Forward
Squad No: 10
current club: real madrid
recent club: olympic lyon
Real Madrid
On 1 July 2009, it was announced that Lyon had reached an agreement with Spanish club Real Madrid for the transfer of Benzema. The transfer fee was priced at €35 million with the fee rising to as much as €41 million based on incentives.[45] On 9 July, Benzema successfully passed his medical and signed his contract, a six-year deal, later that afternoon. He was presented officially as a Real Madrid player later that night at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, similarly to the previous signings of Kaká and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Benzema made his Real Madrid debut on 20 July in the club's opening pre-season friendly against Irish club Shamrock Rovers in Dublin, appearing as a halftime substitute.[48] He scored the lone goal in the club's 1–0 win, scoring in the 87th minute.On 24 August, Benzema netted two goals in Real Madrid's 4–0 victory over Norwegian club Rosenborg in an annual friendly tournament organized for the Santiago Bernabeu Trophy. The goals brought his total tally in the preseason with Real Madrid to five, making him the joint top scorer alongside fellow striker Raúl.
He made his La Liga debut on 29 August against Deportivo de La Coruña.[51] Benzema scored his first official goal for Madrid on 20 September 2009 at home against newly promoted side Xerez.
International career
Benzema has earned caps with all of France's youth teams beginning with the under-16 team, whom he earned six caps with scoring one goal. In 2004, he was a part of the under-17 squad that won the 2004 UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship,[53] the nation's first ever.[54] In the tournament, which was played on home soil, Benzema scored one goal against Northern Ireland in the group stage.[55] Benzema later played with the under-17 team at the 2005 edition of the UEFA-CAF Meridian Cup. He played in all four matches scoring a tournament-leading five goals helping France win the tournament. In total with the under-17s, Benzema made 18 appearances and scored 14 goals. During the 2005–06 season, he played with the under-18 team making 10 appearances scoring five goals before earning a call up to the under-21 squad who were attempting to qualify for the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship. Benzema made only five appearances with the team scoring no goals. His final appearances with the squad was in their shocking two-legged loss to Isreal in the qualifying playoffs to determine the participants in the UEFA under-21 tournament.
Before representing France, Benzema was eligible for Algeria and was called up to the squad by the Fédération Algérienne de Football in December 2006,[57] but turned them down stating, "Algeria is my parents’ country and it is in my heart, but football-wise I will only play for the French national team."On 28 March 2007, Benzema won his first cap for France against Austria, scoring the only goal in a 1–0 win for France.[58] His next two goals came in one game against the Faroe Islands, who France subsequently beat 6–0.[59]
He was selected to represent France at Euro 2008. France's Euro 2008 campaign got off to a bad start with a 0–0 draw against Romania[60] and after a frustrating performance, he was substituted in the second half and played no part in their following game, a 1–4 defeat to the Netherlands.[61] In the last group game, France lost 2–0 to Italy and Benzema featured in the starting lineup. He has now adopted the number 10 for France. He scored his last goal for France from the penalty spot against Turkey on 5 June 2009 in a friendly where they won 1–0.
article source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karim_Benzema
