Take a Number…

By: Inara | October 26th, 2007

…and wait in line!

The most recent club to join the Karim Benzema waiting list is Real Madrid. If sports rag Marca is to be believed (and 90% of the time it isn’t), Benzema is the club’s #1 target. Hatem Ben Arfa is also being actively scouted by Arsenal, with Wenger reported to be a big admirer of the young winger.

Two Bs in a pod.

Part of the new golden generation with Samir Nasri and Jeremy Menez, Benzema and Ben Arfa represent the future of French football. Benzema is a product of OL’s youth academy while Ben Arfa was formed at Clairefontaine and came to Lyon in 2003. They’ve slowly been integrated into Lyon’s senior squad and now are beginning to reap the rewards of their hard work and talent.

Ben Arfa is proving himself not just in France but in Europe as well. He’s taken his game to a whole new level this year, his complicity with Benzema beautiful to watch, his abilities and trickery breathtaking. Though he still has much to improve, his performances were such that he was called to replace Louis Saha in the France National Team two weeks ago – at the expense of David Trezeguet. He even managed a goal on his debut. For Ben Arfa, that was a huge accomplishment because he’s not even a starter at Lyon.

Benzema has been phenomenal with Lyon since the start of the season, scoring 11 goals in the league, 2 for France, and 1 in the Champions League. He’s scored in nearly every league game. He scored his first goal for the France NT last year, and this year, he managed a brace against the Faroe Islands. He’s been hailed as a prodigy by his compatriots Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka, and David Trezeguet. For Benzema, the absence of Fred and the nonform of Milan Baros were the best things that happened to him because otherwise, he might still be on the bench.

You’d have to be blind not to see the many transfer rumors popping up about these two in the past few weeks. It’s been confirmed that Chelsea, Real Madrid, Arsenal, and Inter Milan have sent scouts to watch Benzema, though at this point, only Arsenal and Real’s interest looks to be the real deal.

This summer there will be a huge uproar over this kid, and based on the form he’s shown so far, with good reason. It also doesn’t help that the French league is traditionally considered easy pickings. Bored at work, I was visiting various forums and saw that many transfer wishlists include posts about how they were sure Benzema could be persuaded to arrive this summer, and in some cases, this winter. The arrogance of those posters aside, I just wish people would calm down for a minute and think about this rationally.

Benzema is only 19. Obviously he will leave Lyon within the next few years, so it seems silly that clubs are falling over themselves to get him right now. Even if Benzema stays until the end of his contract, he will only be 24 by then (in 2012), which is the same age that Klaas-Jan Huntelaar is now.

It’s in the best interests of everyone that Benzema stays where he is and continues to progress, surrounded by a club who’s loved him since he was 10, with the support of his family and teammates, in a town that he was born in. We’ve seen too many cases of young French players unable to adapt to bigger leagues despite the promising talent they showed in France. Many people don’t realize that a player’s emotional development is just as important as their technical and physical development.

That development will not stop anytime soon just because he’s in France. People instantly assume that if a team is in L1 and winning the league back to back, then the league must be poor in terms of the players rather than the team being exceptional.

The problem is that Lyon is seen as easy recruitment ground by European superclubs because of the belief that their leagues are more competitive and will develop the player better by giving him more exposure and understanding of other world class players. While it is true to a certain extent, it’s not as if Benzema is playing for Metz – he’s playing with Lyon and has been so for the past several years. He is getting CL and international experience. He’s playing alongside the likes of Juninho and Coupet. Yes, in four or five years, you can say that Benzema will have hit a ceiling in L1, but not right now. We saw in the CL match against Stuttgart that he still has a lot to learn, something only experience can teach him.

It should also be pointed out that Benzema, who recently extended his contract until 2012, doesn’t want to leave right now. Maybe club loyalty looks strange in the modern age of football, but he genuinely loves his club. He’s said before that it means a lot to him to be playing with the guys he used to watch train as a kid. He won’t go to the clash for a higher paycheck.

Lyon’s future is in the hands of two kids not yet 20 years old.

And clubs are dumb if they think they can get Benzema “cheap” now. Aulas won’t sell him for anything less than 60m right now. As he learned with other transfers (especially Michael Essien’s, who’s selling price now looks cheap), you have to think way into the future.

Ben Arfa’s situation hasn’t been as reassuring, as he has considered leaving Lyon before (remember when he almost signed with Tottenham?). But in the case of Ben Arfa, it mostly has to do with his lack of playing time. He was seeing a lot of bench when he made those comments, and now that he’s been capped by France and is starting games for Lyon, hopefully he won’t have to go elsewhere to search for playing time. Because as it is, if he can’t start for Lyon, he won’t be starting at a bigger club, and his newfound maturity suggests that he knows staying in France would be best for him right now. I imagine Lyon will tie him down by extending his contract as well (it currently runs until 2010).

And Lyon are no longer a selling club. They are now floated on the stock market and can afford to fight to keep their best players. So they don’t need the money. Thanks.

For now, it’s up to Aulas to convince them that they are not just the future of France but of Lyon as well. They have the chance to mean as much to the club as Sonny Anderson and Juninho. They can become OL legends. As for Aulas, he must be as tenacious as possible and not let them go.

See their profiles here: Benzema, Ben Arfa

Some Related Lyon Posts:

Category: Player News and Rumors, Transfers

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Goons_with_Guns

Gooner here. A thank you to thomas' statements. We don't have a need for either Benzema or Ben Arfa--but that doesn't mean Wenger won't bid for them either.
Ush

Inara : Exactly. I've no doubt he will score CL goals but to keep his morale up Lyon need to concede less like last season. But for Karim for the moment, he is home, he is guaranteed Champions League football and scoring lots of goals with Lyon.
Ush

I don't think Benzemas real quest is the Ligue 1 to be honest anyway, he's stated before his main objective to stay is to help Lyon win the champions league. I even noticed when he got his first CL goal against Stuttgart his reaction and when Juninho ran over, it was like he was telling Benzema "See, you can do it!". He should definitely see how the season goes and not get carried away yet like everyone else.
Evilo

Hmmm...
5 pieces of games for the NT, 3 goals.
11 games in L1, 11 goals.

Do you honestly believe that baring injury, he won't reach at least 15+ goals?

That's more than any striker last year.
I'm sorry Inara, but when a striker scores a goal a game in a league, regardless of his age, nationality or anything else, he should move to bigger challenges.
Evilo

Pedretti was NEVER seen as ZZ's successor. If anyone was, Meghni, Meriem or Gourcuff were (before Nasri).
I wonder how anyone could say a DM would be ZZ's successor....

As for Essien, he hasn't been outstanding??? WHAT????
He's been fantastic and is a key player for Chelsea.
pride of Lyon

I agree with Evilo on Cisse and Drogba.
I agree with Magnusson on Pedretti. He was at a time seen as Zidane's successor in the French NT. A year or two before coming to Lyon he played great games for France, especially one (can't remember which one though) where he was fantastic.

As for Essien, he has never really been outstanding in Chelsea. The system doesn't suit him as well as in Lyon. He had though one amazing game 2 years ago with Chelsea considered as the best game ever as a DM. All the tabloids agreed on that, and that by itself is worth all the praise. He had managed 100% successful pass and made a huge amount of interceptions.
But once again, can't remember the game.
Evilo

Magnusson : you're wrong sorry. Cissé fit in a system where all he had to do was run (and he could run fast) and shoot (he could shoot hard). He was missing 5 sitters a game.
He was NEVER Ronaldo like and his technique was ALWAYS poor.

Your comparison would be like me saying Stephane Guivarc'h (who scored an awful lot of goals with Auxerre) was the new Van Basten : off base.
Essien broke his leg once and had 3 real L1 seasons.
Drogba was playing in L2 before moving to Guingamp and OM. He had 3 L1 seasons.

Benzema is not "better than average". I've never seen a 19 year old dominate L1 like this.
Henry was a fine winger in L1. But he never dominated like this at 19. Trezeguet was a deadly scorer in Monaco. But at 19 he was playing in CFA or youth teams.

Again, your Pedretti/Zidane comparison is way off base.
I don't who said Pedretti, a DM was the new ZZ or that CIssé was the new Ronaldo, but you must have hyper-active friends... :D

Pedretti was a nice DM who could make some fantastic long passes.

Players that got burnt by moving too soon were players that never established themselves in L1 before moving (Le Tallec, Aliadière, Sinama). And even then, the special talents DID succeed (Frey, Vieira, A. Diarra, L. Diarra, etc...).

No, sorry your argument can't stand in Benzema's case : he is dominating his league and needs to move to harder difficulties to progress, even if that means we won't have the luxury of seeing him on a weekly basis.
Magnusson

Evilo, Cissé left at 22 and scored 70 goals in like a hundred games at auxerre. He was even more ronaldo-like than benzema back then.
Essien and drogba were not 19 and they had much more than three years of L1. I think essien stayed 4 years at bastia or something. And Drogba left Ligue 1 at 26.
What everybody is saying is that they're better than average and so are a lot of players but it takes a lot of factors to make a great prospect into a superstar.
You know better than me that a lot of players never panned out and didn't even need to leave france for that. Look at Pedretti. He only had to go to Marseille (which is the equivalent of a mild barcelona and madrid pressure wise) to lose that special touch. People were saying he was the new Zidane.
Evilo

Magnusson : Cissé failed because he broke his leg... twice.

And because he was never Benzema-special either.

Look at Essien, Drogba, etc...
How did they do after three L1 years? Great.
Same for plenty of talents.
Magnusson

I really think Benzema is smarter than that. he knows that if he doesn't stay in a club where they will nurture him for years to come, he will become another Cissé. Look at Djibril when he left Auxerre, having only played three seasons in the ligue 1 and being best scorer 2 out of three seasons. Everybody was comparing him to Ronaldo and saying how great he was.
NOw everybody is saying how he didn't improve technically since Auxerre. Benzema needs to stay in France and Therefore in Lyon. When people are saying the other leagues are better, they're only talking about money and four clubs for each league. BUt i can tell you that any year any time the 14th club in L1 is better than the 14th club in serie a and the 14th in spain or the EPL.
Of course when we're talking about clubs that are billion euros industries, it's another conversation.
What would happen if the Bossman jurisprudence was revoked?
pride of Lyon

Inara, your entry is great. This wikipedia war is a symbol of how much we love those players. It's funny, because the Arsenal fans never changed the French entry... shows they are definitely brits.
thomas

yes, the furor over these two in the transfer market caused by idiot arsenal fans has been quite annoying. even with the new revenue it's just not wenger's style to buy young talents who have developed so far that they can be directly integrated into the first team. he prefers to buy kids in the ages 16-17 who can play in the B team and then be groomed to play in a 'style' fit for the prem team. more importantly, wenger avoids buying highly hyped foreingers.

curses should not be directed so much towards gooners in the transfer market, but those fat cats in Real, Inter, and Chelsea who will actually make advances to buy these two young starlets as soon as possible (and then ruin their careers).
Evilo

Frankly, this might not be popular here, but you have to face the facts : Benzema is too good for L1.
He's already the most dominating player in the league at age 19. He's already scoring a goal a game.
What's the point for him to stay more than 1 year?
IMO, you'll see Benzema leave either this summer, or the next one.
Ben Arfa on the other hand, is probably less attached to Lyon, but will need one more year to be considered completely dominant (though that could change fast).

Did Ronaldo stay in Holland until his 24 birthday? Nah, he was way too good for that league.
Until L1 can stop Benzema on a regular basis and give Lyon a run for the title, it's useless for him to stay here.

And yes he'd fit anywhere in Spain and EPL. Italy would be harder because it does take a while to adapt there.
But he would shine in Spain or England.
And I'd argue it's better for him, both short and long term.

Don't be mistaken, I'd love to see him in L1 because it's so great to see such a talent on french fields, but it doesn't make any sense.
Laurie

Inara, LOVE your Wikipedia entry!!
Jordo

If Real can get David Villa from Valencia, I doubt that they will also get Benzema. But then Arsenal might. Fuck them.
Ara

HAHAHA! Yeahhhh! Yea
pride of Lyon

It seems we are beginning a fan war as well on those players. The wikipedia entrance (English version... grrrr Arsenal) is changing a few times a day now about a possible transfer in the Emirates Stadium.

Ben Arfa will be the tough one to keep. I don't agree with you Inara when you say that if he doesn't start in Lyon, he wouldn't start in another bigger club.
It is especially Houiller who didn't play him because he is too random player. But in his case randomness is the doorway to genius. You need to trust his development.
He played well in 2005 when he came on against PSV. He should have started very often since then. He was too personal, but so was Cristiano Ronaldo at his debut in Manchester. Still, Ferguson played him and he played more and more for the team.
Ara

Fuck all other european "super" clubs. As we all know, they should raise their own damn talent. Let Real suck on loser Raul and let Arsenal feed off of Theo the 12 year old dork Walcott. If Lyon were able to keep their players over the past 5 years they would have been one sick ass team. Now Lyon is in danger of losing two great stars. Fuck that.