Despite winning the Champions’ League in 2002, the Galácticos policy never fully succeeded and it was no real surprise that, after a rapid succession of managers had come and gone, Pérez himself was replaced as president in July 2006 by Ramón Calderón. His first actions were to install Fabio Capello as manager and former player Predrag Mijatovic as director of football. Capello managed to repeat his feat of 1997 – winning the league and then being sacked for not producing an attractive enough style of play. His successor, another former player, Bernd Schuster, won the league in his first season – the 31st title for the club; the first consecutive league title winners for 18 seasons; and a record number of points for La Liga compiled in the process.

Two defeats -- at home in the past week -- to archrival Barcelona, the yin to their yang, had meant Real Madrid were out of the Spanish Cup and, barring divine intervention, out of the race for the Spanish title. The Champions League was all they had left. It is the biggest prize in the club game and a competition they had won four times in the past five years. Making it five out of six seemed unthinkable, but then, so did winning three straight, and they had managed that feat the year before. In a season when there is no dominant European club, Real Madrid had reason to hope despite their struggles elsewhere.



Form after RonaldoPost the Cristiano Ronaldo era, Benzema is leading the line for Real Madrid with little competition for a starting berth. This season, he has managed to score a total of 31 goals across all competitions and is the second highest goal scorer in La Liga with 21 goals, only behind Lionel Messi. Karim’s finishing abilities had been doubted over the past 9 seasons when Ronaldo was there as he was doing more of the creating but he is beginning to show his natural skill which is to sag nets. With 5 matches to go, the Real Madrid forward is on course to outscore all the traditional forwards in the league, i.e. the number 9s, precisely what is expected of strikers at Real Madrid.

The AccoladesThe talk of the best in modern day football involves the individual contribution and the collective achievements won by the players. The debate about Messi and Ronaldo boils down to Ballon d’Ors and UEFA Champions League crowns.

Although Benzema is yet to win the Ballon d’Or, he has done the most in winning everything winnable at club level. The table below shows Benzema’s achievements in comparison with other Real Madrid players in his position.Name UEFA Champs La Liga FIFA Club WC Total AccoladesBenzema 4 2 4 10Di Stefano 5 8 1 14Raul 3 6 2 11 To date, Benzema has a total of 10 major trophies just 4 shy of Di Stefano’s achievements.

This is promising for the striker who has just turned 31. He looks indispensable at the heart of the front line and with Zidane returning to the club, his fortunes look promising. Furthermore, the eras in which these players played for Madrid is different. Di Stefano and Raul were privileged to play in an era when Real Madrid was dominating domestically. The level of competition from the rivals was not as stiff as of the present day.



That said, Benzema is at a disadvantage and has to inspire his team to change the narrative. Individual StatsThe most interesting part for some. The numbers that reflect the individual’s contribution to the game.Name Goals Scored No. of Appearances Benzema 222 462 Di Stefano 323 741 Raul 308 396 From this, it is evident that Benzema has the least compared to the rest. However, this does not take anything away from his individual contribution as he was playing with Ronaldo, and made sure that the player became the greatest goal scorer Real Madrid have ever had.

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