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Born
Karim Benzema was born on December 19th, 1987 in Lyon, France. -
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Karim Benzema
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Youth Club
At the age of nine years old Karim Benzema entered the youth academy of Lyon. Benzema quickly ascended up the academy becoming one of the finest players. Benzema would not reach his break out season until 2005. -
National Team
Karim Benzema was called up to play for the French National Team in 2003. He was to play in the 2004 UEFA Under 17 Championship. He was played in two matches in the tournament and scored once against Northern Islands. The next year he was a regular starter for the French Under 18 NAtional Team. His scored his first goal against Poland in a Czech Republic tournament. In the finals for the tournament he scored the opening goal against Czech Republic to win 2-0. This was only the beginning. -
First Professionl Debut
On January 15th, 2005 Karim Benzema substitued for Pierre-Alain Frau. Benzema assisted on the second goal to put Lyon ahead 2-0. Five days later after his debut he signed a three year deal with the club Lyon. He appeared three more times as a substitue until April 2nd -
First Career Start
Benzema made his first start for the club Lyon on April 2nd, 2005 playing against the club Lens. The game ended with Lyon winning 1-0. He ended the year with six starting appearances for Lyon and the club winning its fourth title in Ligue 1. -
Becomes Lyon's Lead Striker
Benzema became Lyons leading striker in the 2007 season. He started off great by scoring 31 goals in 51 games. In the champions league Benzema scored 2 goals and assured victory for Lyon against Rangers. Lyon advanced to the knockout round to play the all mighty Manchester United. Benzema scored in the first leg to make it 1-0. In the second leg Machester United beated Lyon 2-0 so Man United ended up advancing because of aggregate. -
Breakthrough Season
In March 2008 Lyon and Benzema signed a contract extension increasing Benzema's contract through 2013. After he signed the contract Benzema became one of Frances most top paid soccer players! Also after the 2007-2008 season he was awarded the "Ligue 1 Player of the Year", selected to the team of the year,and the Trophée du Meilleur Buteur for being the League's top scorer. -
Breaking News
Lyon's general manager makes a comment on how about Benzema is worth about 100 million euro's! He scored his 7th goal of the season on October 29th, 2008. Benzema was starting off the 2008-2009 season amazingly. Benzema also landed on the front cover of the 2009 FIFA game. Lyon did not finish at the top of the season and sadly did not win the League Cup. Benzema did however come in third with the overall goal's that season! -
Transfer
On July 1at, 2009 the French club Lyon transferred Benzema to the spanish club Real Madrid for over 41 million euros. On July 9th Benzema finally signed his 6 year contract with Real MAdrid. Also signing a few days before KaKa and Cristano Ronaldo. This squad would prove itself to be very deadly. Bezema made his first debut on July 20th for a friendly match against the Shamrock Clovers for Ireland. He scored the only goal in the win 1-0. It was truly a very fantastic start for the young player. -
2010-2011 Season
In his second season for Real Madrid approached the spanish club brought in a new manager José Mourinho. The new manager then told Benzema he would have to work a lot harder here in the spanish league then in the french league. Out of no where the French National Team coach told the Real Madrid manager that Benzema should lose a few pounds to reach his full talent. This was a real wide opener for Benzema who did step up and reached his full talent for the season! -
A Player To Remember
Starting the 2011-2012 season Karim Benzema knew it would be a special one. After losing 18 pounds from a traing camp in Italy the Real Madrid coach named him the starting striker for the team. In the first match of the season he assisted Ozil against Barcelona. Benzema then lead the team into winning the La Liga Cup title and bringing honor to France and Real Madrid. This was Real Madrid's first cup title in four years. That is Benzema's career in a timeline. And let's remember he's only 24.