Karim Benzema, frankly put, is living the life right now. The man just won a Champions League – his fifth, a record shared by multiple Real Madrid players – he’s also going to win the Ballon d’Or, the UEFA Men’s best player, Fifa’s The Best award, and is about to start this season off very soon, when he meets up with his Real Madrid teammates in LA.
Now, the backup to Benzema is an interesting thing to talk about. Being a backup to the best striker in the world is tough, because you’re not going to play unless Benzema gets injured.
For those positions, you can’t really rely on a young striker, can you? I mean, young players need to play as much as possible for their development, and if they don’t get minutes at Real, they will leave.
Playing Eden Hazard or Rodrygo there could work. Still, the goalscoring side of things would always remain questionable, and you never really know what you’ll get from Rodrygo at striker, because he is not a striker.
But, you can get a veteran to do the job for a season or two, right?
Edin Dzeko would be a great back-up to Benzema, even if it’s just for a season
I think Dzeko is a good player. He’s 36, but he can provide the team with some goals whenever needed. Plus, he’s a veteran, so he won’t really ask for a huge salary. And, a guy like him would just want to be on a championship team, doing veteran stuff – playing whenever required and helping out the youngsters with whatever advice he can give them.
It’s not like he’s a bad striker, quite the contrary – Dzeko scored 13 goals and assisted six more in Serie A last season.
Dzeko wouldn’t complain for minutes, and even if it’s for a season or two, he could be a reliable option for whenever Benzema cannot play.
He wouldn’t struggle with consistency all that much because he’s a very seasoned professional, and having him on the team would be good for the youngsters.
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Other than his age, I don’t really see a downside to him joining the club. Of course, there aren’t any rumors linking him to Real Madrid at the moment, but I don’t see why not, really.