Jerzy Dudek (Former Real Madrid goalkeeper) has said that Karim Benzema is good. He is so damn good that Dudek thinks that he is actually better than the old Ronaldo. Not the new one, but the old legend one.
Ronaldo is considered all over the world as one of the top 5 players of all time and has won 3 FIFA World Player Of The Year awards along with numerous other records. Benzema has not done any of that yet but Dudek thinks that Benzema is still better.
On what ground has he said that, Dudek has not even given a hint of that in his interview.
He said:
“When I first saw his first training session, I was impressed,” Dudek said in an interview with France Football.
“I told all my friends that Madrid had signed an extraordinary player. For me, he is even better than Ronaldo, the Brazilian. Karim has incredible qualities; he is fast and he is elusive, and he has an eye for goal.”
I could write a pretty long post about why Benzema or for that matter any forward ever (apart from Pele and Maradonna if we are considering them as forwards) was not better than Ronaldo, not even equal to him. Many were close but I do not think there was a player as gifted as Ronaldo was.
Messi is quite close now but he has to play somewhere else in order to prove his mettle. Which ofcourse he will not do for reasons I do not want to specify (I have yet to go through all the hate mail I am getting these days, when thats done then I ll talk about something which might offend some Barcelona fans).
So let us just summarize the comparison between Benzema and Ronaldo then:
- Ronaldo was very very fast. Very fast. Defenders ate his dust all the time. Nobody could even get close to him at his peak. Benzema is fast but just fast enough to be a world class striker. He is not in C.Ronaldo’s or Messi league even.
- Ronaldo had a great shot in him. Benzema has that too but then again, Ronaldo’s was just unbelievable. He found some angle for scoring goals which many did not know before.
- Ronaldo had a great control of the ball. Great touch. Benzema has good control but not great control. Messi and C.Ronaldo are better than Benzema in this regard so lets not even compare him to the real Ronaldo.
- Ronaldo could rip a group of defenders anywhere on the pitch. Benzema cannot do that. He can beat one player or two, but he has never been known to beat 6 or 7 players without making too much fuss like Ronaldo did or like Messi does ( with some help from Xavi, Iniesta, Daniel Alves, Pedro, Villa and before that Ronaldinho, Deco, Eto’o, Xavi and Iniesta)
- Ronaldo at 22, 23 was had far superior physicaly fitness than Benzema. Benzema is not known to be a feline like Torres, Drogba or Torres are. They can run all day long. Benzema cannot. Period
There are many more things which Ronaldo had and Benzema (or anyone else for that matter) does not have. But there are things Benzema and many many other players were good at, even better than the great Ronaldo. These are:
- Benzema has way way more discipline than Ronaldo ever had. He may not be a fit guy but he is a strong guy. Ronaldo was naturally a fit guy and that is why he was able to run at pace throughout the length of the football match but he was not that into training. Benzema is better than him in this regard.
- Benzema probably has a better header too than the great Ronaldo but that is probably because the old Ronaldo did not feel the need to use the header (or the bicycle kick). He could do everything with his feet so much better than the rest, little bit like Lionel Messi. You cannot really blame Messi for having a bad header even though he does not have the height and neither the structure that the old Ronaldo had (but of course he did not use these to his advantage).
- Benzema probably has the better attitude too. That may be because he is not as good as Ronaldo was at this age. Ronaldo had done everything there was to do in football at a very early age. I don’t know with what motivation he woke up in the morning to go to training when he was in his early 20s. He was so good and may be that was the reason of his quick downfall. He was so good, that he did not feel the need to improve and that is a disaster for any professional. This is where I think Benzema and especially C.Ronaldo will be much more better off than Ronaldo. Because C.Ronaldo and Benzema had to work hard for their skills and they know the value of hardwork.
- Benzema’s movement off the ball is also I think potentially equal to that of Ronaldo’s. He can make some great runs this fella. He knows where to position himself in order to make space for his teammates and can also hold up the ball really well. The old Ronaldo was that good on holding the ball. He would just take the ball and started to beat the crap out of defenders.
So this is why I think Benzema is not better than Ronaldo.
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