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