Florentino Perez compares Karim Benzema to two Real Madrid legends

Karim Benzema reached the pinnacle of football recently, as he was crowned the Ballon d’Or winner. Except for Luka Modric, the Real Madrid striker is the only other player to win the most prestigious award in football during the Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo era, with the duo dominating things since 2008 and have twelve Ballon d’Ors between them.

Thus, it is safe to say that Benzema joins a pretty elite list and not just that, but he has also continued Real Madrid’s tradition of having Ballon d’Or winners in their team.

Out of the last six Ballon d’Or winners, five have played for Real Madrid at some point of time – Benzema, Modric, Ronaldo, Kaka and Fabio Cannavaro.

And Florentino Perez took the opportunity to compare Benzema to two Real Madrid icons and absolute legends of the game in Ronaldo Nazario and Zinedine Zidane. As reported by AS, the club president attended Cadena SER’s ‘El Larguero’ from Paris and he said:

"“He’s a nine, a mix of Ronaldo and Zidane, he does those two jobs at the same time. He is a crack. He moves the lead like Zidane did and shoots on goal like Ronaldo Nazario did.”"

Perez had some high praise for Benzema and compared him to two Real Madrid legends

It goes without saying that that is the highest of compliments for any player to receive, to be compared to players like Zidane and Ronaldo, who Benzema has admitted to being his idols.

They were without doubt two of the best in the history of the game and while Benzema might not have hit the heights that they did as individuals, it is an incredible achievement nonetheless to have reached a level where certain aspects of his game can be compared to theirs.

Not many people would have expected Benzema to even compete for the Ballon d’Or even a few years back, forget winning it, but he definitely has taken his game to the next level since the departure of Ronaldo in 2018 and has established himself firmly as a Real Madrid legend as well.