He had dreamed of it last year before finishing at the foot of the podium, a little disappointed, and us with it. But the dazzling season of Karim Benzema, top scorer in the Spanish league and the Champions League, leaves no choice to the jury of the Ballon d’Or. The now-legendary Real Madrid striker will become the first French player to receive the top award since his former coach Zinedine Zidane. Twenty-four years of waiting for a vertiginous explosion of the senses late in life. For a long time, KB 9 broadcast the idea of a part-time talent, before rising to an unsuspected dimension. ” 20 minutes » devotes a series of articles to him before D Day. First episode this Friday: Benzema seen by the coaches who shaped or accompanied him.
Drawn in October 2021 in an interview granted by Karim Benzema to the Madrid sports daily ace, the sentence has all the good old cliché: “I dream since I was a child of winning the Ballon d’Or. “However, it is half validated by Armand Garrido, who watched over the native of Bron in his very young years in Lyon.
“We never talked about it, but I understood that in secret, it was already part of his desires, underlines the former OL trainer. On the other hand, he spoke to me about Real Madrid, especially because his idol Ronaldo [le Brésilien] was playing there. It was already a crazy dream in my eyes. And if he had spoken to me about Ballon d’Or at that time, I would have told him to stop dreaming. As a trainer, we had to keep reasonable plans, and our goal was to make Karim a professional player. I believe this is a successful goal [sourire]. »
The Vendée has changed everything
In April 2004, Garrido had brought the little prodigy, barely 16 years old at the prestigious Vendée tournament of Montaigu, in the company of Loïc Rémy, Anthony Mounier or Sandy Paillot. A competition flown over later, the happy coach could savor: “Our number 10 showed his talent in the final [deux buts marqués contre Nantes]. He fits well into the mold and it is rare that we take him in excess of individualism. »
If Alain Olio, director of the Lyon training center, had already reported this rare talent twice to the FFF, he seemed set to pass his turn and miss the Euro U17 a month after Montaigu, unlike his club teammates Hatem Ben Arfa and Remy Riou. “A group was formed without Karim in the France team and he was almost a year younger than the others [Benzema est né le 19 décembre 1987], replaces Garrido. It hatched around the age of 16. »
But René Girard, present in Vendée with the France U16 team, has been there. “I did not know him particularly and I found him phenomenal, breathtaking, recalls the 2021 French champion with Montpellier. Like Philippe Bergeroo [sélectionneur des U17] told me he needed a striker to make his group perfect, I advised him Karim. From there to think that he could be Ballon d’Or, I will not go that far. On the other hand, if he doesn’t have it this year, I don’t understand anything about football. »
The tone is the same on the side of Bergeroo, who accompanied for three seasons, from the U17s to the U19s, the explosion in Blue of the future five-time winner of the Champions League. “I can’t say that I saw him Ballon d’Or at that time, explains the former coach of PSG and the French women’s team. But it was the player who surprised me the most, the striker who had the most qualities, in front of goal thanks to his technique, but also in his movements. No one could catch him! »
The Spaniards under the spell since 2005
Following Girard’s recommendations, the Basque technician had put the Lyonnais on trial for a week, necessarily more than convincing, and had brought him to play the famous Euro won by Blueberries at home.
“He hadn’t played a lot because we had a well-established team, details Bergeroo. But the following season, when the Meridian Cup, he had an exceptional tournament. He had passed over the Nasri, Menez and Ben Arfa. He had eaten them in a year. Even the Spaniards, who we had in the pool, said to me: “but what a player! What a player!!! “. I said to myself that he had made exceptional progress and that he had not yet reached the end. »
Far from it. Just remember José Mourinho’s “30 Million Friends” metaphor in December 2010, to steal a KB9 that was too ineffective for his taste, a year and a half after his arrival at Real Madrid: “If you don’t no dog to go hunting but you have a cat, so you go with the cat. You hunt less, but you hunt nonetheless. » Labeled, the Lyon feline had been explaining itself between four eyes with his trainer, then at the height of his glory. From the top of his oversized ego, the Special One at the time appreciated seeing the young Lyonnais daring to stand up to him. From this episode, the respect was going to be mutual.
With or without Mourinho, who left in 2013, Benzema spent several seasons in the shoes of the lieutenant of another Portuguese, collector of Ballons d’Or (2013, 2014, 2016, 2017 with Real, after that of 2008 at Manchester United ).
“Karim is at the end of his career and could have been crowned earlier, observes Alain Perrin, who led the Blues striker at OL during the 2007-2008 season. If he wasn’t, it’s because he still needed to work on things. For a few years, he was in the shadow of Cristiano Ronaldo and he had to have this strength of character to continue his progress, when he was very close to losing his way. Real supported him and he is reaping the rewards at the end of his career. I think this is his year. »
Excluded from the Blues for five and a half years for a dark sextape affair, distant spectator of the CR7-Messi duel for the awarding of the supreme individual trophy, teammate of the 2018 winner, Luka Modric, finalist of a Russian World Cup watched from his sofa… The Golden Ball for Benzema has long looked like a quest as futile as the Shield of Brennus for Clermont, titled for the first time in 2010 after 10 lost finals.
While today, this award is obvious to just about any football observer. It would have already been anything but scandalous last year, when Zinédine Zidane, the last French winner in 1998, pleaded his cause. In vain, even if it was only a postponement for an attacker whom Zizou supported even in his worst moments lived within the White House, when 99% of his colleagues would have sent him to the end of the bench.
“We are talking about a player who deserves to win this Golden Ball, had dropped the former blue icon on the set of Telefoot, in October 2021. He is an incredible player, I had the great honor of coaching him. He associates easily with others. He knows how to do everything on the field. »
The potential for a Ballon d’Or at 20
Characteristics that Perrin had already noted more than a decade earlier. “When you see what he was capable of doing at 20 in the Champions League, which for me is the benchmark… When we played against Barcelona or Manchester United, he had nothing to envy to Ballons d’Or like Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, if not experience. As a player, he already had the complete baggage. Very soon, he joined Real Madrid. When a Top 5 club in the world is interested in you, it is because they believe that you have the potential to obtain the Golden Ball. “It remains to concretize it…
Karim Benzema’s former coaches are preparing to savor on Monday “the consecration of an exceptional career, that of a player who left for a small neighborhood club [le SC Bron Terraillon] to become the captain of the biggest club in the world, and therefore one of the few French Ballons d’Or in history », as summarized by Armand Garrido. “He deserves it a hundred times over,” confirms Philippe Bergeroo. Before slipping into a smile. “And then, that would allow me to say that I trained for a Ballon d’Or, it’s still not bad! »