Karim Benzema: The most important man at Real Madrid?

People can change. Karim Benzema used to be the daft one, accident-prone and unreliable to the point of exasperation. In his first season at Real Madrid he spoke to more traffic cops than Spanish journalists. He never learned the language. He scored just nine goals.

In 2009 he crashed his club car driving home from his first ever Clásico, and then needed to have his yellow Lamborghini towed after another smash this time on Reunion Island as he gave French rapper Rhoff a 6am lift away from his 22nd birthday party. No one thought then that Benzema would become ‘the sensible one’.

He is still the player whose fleet of cars includes a Rolls Royce Phantom, a Ferrari 458 and a Bugatti Veyron but needs a lift into work every morning because of driving license problems following an eight-month ban but in all other realms he has transformed himself into the man everyone else relies on.

He’s been away recently and it's reminded people just how important he is. Some have even wondered if he isn’t the most important Real Madrid player of them all.

Benzema picked up a hamstring injury at the end of July. And having played in the Real Madrid team that beat Manchester City 4-1 and Inter 3-0 he then watched from the sidelines as Rafa Benitez’ side scored just four goals in six games including last week’s goalless draw with newly-promoted Sporting Gijon in the season’s opening fixture.

It turns out that even though Real Madrid have plenty of players who run very fast with the football towards goal, if they don’t have Benzema playing with his back to it, sucking defenders out of position and cushioning passes to the onrushing Cristino Ronaldo and Gareth Bale, then things break down.

For all that he looks like a man not paying attention, it turns out he’s the drawbridge dropping down over the moat that separates defence from attack. He’s the scrabble vowels and without him Madrid have a lot of high-scoring consonants but can’t make any words.

When Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich were beaten 5-0 on aggregate by Real Madrid two seasons ago at the semi-final stage of the Champions League, the Catalan coach said afterwards: “They are athletes. They are football players, but mainly athletes.”

That did Benzema a mighty disservice. He is more brains than legs – pure football intelligence. By current standards he is no athlete – a mere mortal alongside Ronaldo and Bale. And when Jose Mourinho coached him, he bemoaned a certain lackadaisical passivity.

"If you can't go hunting with your dog then you have to take your cat," said Mourinho about how his options were limited when he had to pick his French forward. And he didn’t mean ‘man that cat can play’. This was Benzema the disinterested house pet. “If we arranged things around you we would have to start training at midday because you are not awake when you turn up at 10 and you are still asleep at 11,” went one training-ground rollicking.

The negative reviews from Mourinho had a positive effect. And against all the natural tendencies of the modern game to bin bad signings, Real Madrid stuck by him and watched him become a better player.

Manchester United tried to sign Benzema back in 2009. And for a long time Sir Alex Ferguson’s refusal to meet the €30m euros asking price looked a wise decision. But the goals-per-season totals have going up steadily since that first year and the ability to make others score is stronger than ever. He has grown an attitude too – a positive one that reeks of mental strength and maturity.

"I think if you get Benzema, not only will you challenge for the league, but you also challenge for the Champions League,” said Thierry Henry earlier this summer about Arsene Wenger’s chances of signing him.

"For all those clowns who want to make believe things at my fans. Here this is my home !" tweeted Benzema this week, presumably not deliberately aimed at Henry.

He’s not going anywhere. On Saturday he should be back in the team ready to face Real Betis and his one-time critics at Real Madrid have never been so pleased to call him one of theirs.