Karim Benzema and Jeremy Toulalan Extend Their Contracts!!!!!!!!

By: Inara | March 7th, 2008

Life is good. How can it not be when two of Lyon’s most important players – in fact the most important players – commit several more years to Lyon?

This morning, it was announced that Jeremy Toulalan extended his contract by another two years until 2012. Additionally, Karim Benzema, the player everyone wants, reaffirmed his desire to stay by also adding another two years – so now he’s under contract until 2014. Edit: His buyout clause will be over €100m.

Of course this doesn’t mean that these two will actually be here that long, but with Samir Nasri soon to be extending his contract, and Hatem Ben Arfa hopefully following, these guys will be examples to the other young talents that fall into the trap of leaving France too early. So maybe L1 does have hope?

Take that, Fergie/Arsene/Carlo/Roman/Txixi/Pedra/Massimo! I just know that those guys are crying because now Benz’s price has just skyrocketed.

And the best news is that Lyon will be keeping the core elements of their team together. Do you know what this means for next year? Champions League, here we come (closer)!

Some Related Lyon Posts:

Category: Ligue 1, Player News and Rumors

« Foto: Karim Benzema seen with a Murse! | Home | Maybe Lyon do have a chance at signing Hugo Lloris after all… »

Shazback

Eh, I've been on vacation (yep, real proper vacations!) skiing in the Alps.

I'm planning on liveblogging Rennes-PSG if I can, ahem, "manage" to watch it.

But honestly, Rennes is really just "that club that's there but that never has anything interesting that happens to it". And that's one of the reasons why I like them!

As for Man U - Lyon, I found that both teams set out very defensively, but Lyon didn't manage to scare Man U, save Kader Keita's shot on the post (but even that, strangely, didn't scare me much...), whilst Manchester seemed pretty happy to go for 1-0, and wait for a second goal on a counter-attack... Made for a boring game.
Shazback

Inara, I don't know what you mean by "buyout clause", because it's not mandatory in France (as it is in the Spanish Liga), and very few players sign one (the only reason a player would sign one is so that he can be sure he can leave should there be a good offer)...

However, it's great news that Benzema and Toulalan have extended their contract! Now for Ben Arfa and Nasri and the Ligue 1 will be a little more exciting!

However, Lyon will still have to up a level if they want to progress in the Champion's League, IMO. Let's hope that Ederson will help in midfield. That'll be a start. Because Lyon lost (by quite a margin) to Manchester in midfield...

Good luck for Sunday against Blanc(mange)'s boys!
Caio

Inara, i know that is almost impossible his transfer to São Paulo, but Juninho said many times that he will come back to Vasco to end his career at 2010, when his contract with Lyon ends

like he said on that video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

here is the translation :

Fan:Juninho,Speak,please!...
Fan:Shirt of "Vascão"(Vasco da Gama)...
Juninho:Shirt of "Vascão" its historical...
Fan:This shirt its like Gold!..
Juninho:This shirt is everything...And is the number 8...
Fan:Força Jovem(in Brazil,the most fanatical fans in the soccer have a special name...Força Jovem its this "hooligans" of Vasco da Gama)
Fan:Juninho is Força Jovem...
Juninho:I will be back one day!
Caio

omg also at sao paulo website

http://translate.google.com/tr...
Caio

wtf!!!

i read some rumors about a juninho transfer for são paulo!! i think its only especulation... but im a vasco da gama fan and also a juninho fan ..but if he goes to são paulo it will be a shame for all of us

here is the link

http://translate.google.com/tr...
Chris

I just read the story and am sooo pleased for Lyon. Mostly because ManYoo won't be getting him now. I like to see that clubs in France/Germany/Holland can keep their young talent without EPL/La Liga/Serie A teams poaching them. Now only if Hamburg can keep Van Der Vaart. . .
Mark

Well I guess Benzema got what he wanted. The reason that there was that entire fuss about him going to Man United was only because he wanted a larger contract. Looks like it happened.

If Benzema wants to be a star for the national team and play ahead of players like Henry and Anelka, then he needs to go somewhere else. Ligue 1 just isn't cutting it.
lefutur

in your face Fergie!
Storm

Brilliant news - the future team really is looking good. Our first CL cup would be a great way to christen the new stadium three years from now.
Apparently Benzema has an eight year old brother who's supposed to be even better than the original at the same age...with those football genes we end up being very grateful his parents had so many children:)
Corey

I think if players like Benzema and Ben Arfa stick around for 2 or 3 years, we could definately win the CL. I think Paillot and Remy and Beynie will help big time in the league, but we do need to recruit a few players this summer to be more competitive in the CL still. Step 1, offload Grosso!
Joe

This looks good for Lyon's long term prospects (obviously)... Keeping the recruits for longer. You could build quite a team from only the young footballers that have had to be sold by Lyon over the past years.

:)
Jo

That's a oh so good news !!

I repeat what I said, Toulalan is the best recruitment OL have done for 3 years. I'm totally convinced of that.
And I think I don't need to speak about Benz.
Benz is the one.

:)