• Zidane. "Hazard is ready to play"
  • Bron. The periphery of Lyon visited by Florentino

From the ring road, on arrival at the Park of the Princes , a huge PSG shirt sprouts from a skyscraper. The canvas mimics a known effect of the Superman movies: the hero monkey hovering under the buttons of Clark Kent's suit. In the building, instead of the famous one that capital letter in red is the shield of the club that receives Real Madrid tonight.

The special effects should not intimidate players like Karim Benzema , king of the Champions four times and known visitor of the French mega-urban. As a player of Lyon that was, duels against PSG were considered high-risk classics, the Madrid-Barça of the Eiffel Tower. In the distance, true to its origins, for him they are still special appointments. "He will be more motivated," Zidane intuits. The ultras will be whistled like more than a decade ago, when he was dressed in Olympique . The suspicion is mutual, without attending the player to the threats that PSG made in recent years for his signing, in the plan to strengthen the Qatari project.

To the historical rivalry, Benzema joins his resentment with the political class of the capital and, above all, with the football federation of his country, after being removed from the world champion team for the murky issue of blackmail to a partner, Valbuena A strange case that the Supreme Court studies annul due to police malpractice. The defense says that Benzema intermediated to help the colleague. And the accusation, which helped the criminals, some of his acquaintances.

This Wednesday, he steps on Paris as captain and leader of the Madrid attack. After the departure of Cristiano, he took the reins of the front to the surprise of the locker room and Bernabéu himself, now delivered in applause to the same player who so often punished. While Bale was to take over from the Portuguese, Benzema took a step forward, in numbers and attitude. He played almost everything (36 of 38 League games, all eight of the Champions , the Club World Cup, even participated in the trip to Melilla ...), leaving gestures grateful for his teammates and the club.

"The most underrated"

In January, in the middle of the attempt to save the season with Solari on the bench, a finger broke. Ugly fall and operating room waiting. "I don't have surgery," he said, and it still continues, playing with protection and not worsening its effectiveness. Unlike. In the last campaign he was only two goals from his best record: the 32 of 2011-12, with the difference that that year helped him push a Madrid thrown towards the records. Nothing to do with the panorama that forced the return of Zidane. Half a friend, half an older brother, the Marseille encouraged him a few seasons ago to take the trade once and for all, starting with the diet.

Obedient, he dropped kilos on the scale, focused familiarly (with his second wife) and grew up in the field, always, yes, as a luxury squire of CR. Somewhat bored of that role and in fear of losing the position, he was about to accept the Arsenal proposal in 2017. His father banned it by voice.

It was Hafid who years ago called him to also order him to come home one afternoon, in the modest floor of Bron, in the outskirts of Lyon. Upon arrival he found a familiar face in the dining room. "There was the man who had signed Zizou or Ronaldo," Benzema recalls - in a French television documentary - that unexpected visit by Florentino Pérez . "I was looking forward to it, like when you're going to look for a girlfriend," the president of the white club confesses on the tape. «He is one of the most underrated soccer players in the world. He has been playing as Real Madrid striker, how much? 25 years? Others came and he continues. It is the nine of Madrid, with that you say it all, ” Thomas Tuchel , the PSG coach, dedicated yesterday.

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  • Gareth Bale
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