Karim Benzema was born on December 19, 1987, in Lyon, France. He was born to Hafid Benzema and Wahida Djebbara. Benzema is the sixth of nine children. The Benzema family is an immigrant from Algeria.
Little Benzema was born in an unhealthy environment. The majority of people who live around his house have bad habits. Many gangs were dangerous with all their crimes. But because his father’s taught of being disciplined, Benzema grew into a child who was obedient and far from various negative influences.
Even so, it was not easy for Benzema to adapt to its environment. That was because he comes from an immigrant family. In fact, when entering school for the first time, Benzema often received mockeries. He had difficulty in interacting because he had received discriminatory behaviors for several times.
Besides that, the little Benzema also had a weight problem. He was too fat so that he got bullied by his friends at school. After deciding to lose weight, Benzema began to get normal treatment. He was accepted and began to be known by many people.
Because he liked to play a football game, Benzema joined the local academy, Bron Terraillon SC, when he was only 8 years old. His talent began to bloom when he successfully scored against Lyon as his team underwent a match with the academy.
Right in 1996, Benzema officially joined the Lyon academy.
When joining the Lyon academy, Benzema was also given the task to become a ball-boy for several times in a match played by Lyon’s first team.
Underwent a match with the Lyon academy, Benzema participated in the ‘Championnat National des 16 ans’ tournament and scored 38 goals.
After his performance continued to develop, Benzema had the opportunity to make his debut with the main team in 2005. At that time, Lyon managed to crush Metz with a score of 2-0. Following his better appearance, Benzema officially signed a contract with Lyon for three years.
Although he was officially joined into the main team, Benzema still found things that were uncomfortable for him. He had been underestimated and made a joke by his seniors.
Not wanting to be discouraged, Benzema continued to believe in himself and prove the quality he possessed. In 2006, he even managed to score two goals against Grenoble in the competition ‘Coupe de France.’
In the 2007/08 season, Benzema began to be a mainstay of Lyon as an attacker and successfully scored 20 goals against opponents.
Because he continued to play nicely, Lyon did not hesitate to extend this attacker’s contract. Right on March 13, 2008, this Frenchman officially signed a contract in Lyon until 2013.
Benzema’s brilliant performance in Lyon really attracted the interest of the Spanish giants Real Madrid. Armed with 66 goals in 148 appearances, Benzema officially landed at the Santiago Bernabeu on July 9, 2009. He was tied up for the next 6 years by el Real.
His first debut with Los Blancos began in the pre-season match against Shamrock Rovers. In the match, Benzema successfully gave the only goal scored by the capital team.
After that, Benzema went through a match with El Real at the Santiago Bernabeu Trophy annual tournament. On August 24, 2009, the striker scored two goals against Rosenborg and helped Real Madrid win 4-0.
He made his league debut in the match against Deportivo La Coruna. While his first goal in the league he scored in Real Madrid’s 5-0 win against Xerez.
Despite a brilliant performance on the pitch, Karim Benzema was once involved in a sex scandal with an underage girl, Zahia Dehar. At that time, Benzema was involved in the case with his teammate on the French national team, Franck Ribery. But after an investigation, the two were found not guilty.
In addition to the scandal, Benzema was again dealing with the same thing. He and some of his close friends were accused of carrying out threats to Valbuena using sex videos. As a result of this scandal, Benzema failed to appear at Euro 2016 and continued to be exiled from the French national team squad.
Returning to Real Madrid, Benzema really had an extraordinary season. Although his fate in the French national team was not too lucky, at least Benzema was able to contribute various achievements to the team which was based at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Four European Champions League trophies, two La Liga titles, two Copa Del Rey, two Spanish Super Cups, four Club World Cups, and three European Super Cups became the evidence of the sharpness of this 31-year-old man as an attacker in Los Galacticos.