Where does Karim Benzema rank among the best French players in history?

8. Just Fontaine

Just Fontaine came like a flash and left like a flash scoring 30 goals in only 21 appearances for Les Bleus. A ratio of 1.4 goals every match. He was a prolific goal-scorer and his display in the 1958 World Cup is probably the best Individual-campaign of all time. He scored a total of 13 goals and only the legendary Gerd Muller, and Brazil’s phenomenon, Ronaldo, has been able to better it.

Only those two players and, more recently, Germany’s Miroslav Klose became the only players with more World Cup goals than the legendary Fontaine. At the club level, Fontaine won four Ligue 1 titles, three with Reims and one with OGC Nice. He also won two French Cups, one with each club alongside being the top scorer in Ligue 1 twice in his career.

7. Raymond Kopa

The first Madrid-man on the list, Raymond Kopa was a key campaigner of Real Madrid’s three of the first five European Cup-winning campaigns from 1957 to 59. An attacking midfielder, Kopa had the pleasure of sharing the stage with some of Real Madrid’s all-time icons like Ferenc Puskas and Alfredo Di Stefano. He also won 5 major titles with Stade Reims after his time with Real Madrid.

If anything was lacking for Kopa in his career it was an International trophy with France. He did take part in two World Cups scoring 18 goals, but he could never win it. However, he was named the Young Player of the Tournament in 1954 and the Player of the Tournament in 1958. The latter campaign is the one that brought him his Ballon d’Or later in the same year.