In his sweaty hoodie, he still looks a bit like the boy from Bron, the Lyon suburb he's from.

But Karim Benzema is now 34 years old, has been a professional soccer player with Real Madrid since 2009, and it is in his own gym in his Madrid villa that he films himself.

Loud French rap blares from the loudspeakers, and he calls out in a mixture of Spanish and French: “Let's go!

highly motivated.

I am strong.

Nine!"

The short video on social networks was intended to be self-motivation and a threat at the same time.

On the one hand, the French have been plagued by a thigh injury since the end of January.

On the other hand, he definitely wants to be fit this Tuesday (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Champions League and on Amazon Prime) when Real Madrid play Paris Saint-Germain in the round of 16 of the Champions League.

He is having the second-best season of his career in Madrid.

He has scored 24 goals in all competitions of this round and provided nine assists.

He also leads the La Liga goalscoring chart with 17 goals.

That means a hit every 98 minutes.

Coach Carlo Ancelotti knows Benzema from his first tenure in Madrid between 2013 and 2015. The Frenchman is now stronger, more mature, has a stronger personality, is a real leader, says the Italian, everyone would perceive him completely differently today than ten years ago.

That's no exaggeration.

Benzema arrived in Madrid in 2009, at the same time as Cristiano Ronaldo.

He never came out of the Portuguese's shadow.

Although he was the centre-forward, he was usually considered the assist provider for “CR7”, and often seemed emotionless on the pitch.

In 2017/18, in Ronaldo's last season in Madrid, Benzema only scored 12 goals, it was his worst.

Then Ronaldo went to Turin, and the Frenchman exploded.

The result was 30 hits.

"He did everything"

He scores his goals in the style of a typical centre-forward, receiving the ball in front of the goal, turning and shooting.

But he also likes to shoot from afar.

He likes to chase penalties into one of the top two corners of the goal.

Above all, Benzema also makes his teammates strong.

The 21-year-old left wing Vinicius Jr. finally combines his great talent with tactical discipline and an eye for his teammates.

Perhaps the most beautiful teamwork came in the 4-1 win against Valencia in early January, when Vinicius passed Benzema in the penalty area, who played straight back to the Brazilian who was running with him.

Vinicius dribbled through his opponents' legs and completed the action with a goal.

He is now the second most prolific scorer at Real Madrid after Benzema with 15 goals.

Ancelotti tried many things when looking for a replacement for Benzema, with Luka Jovic or Gareth Bale.

The Welshman, who has made only four appearances this season and will leave Real at the end of the season, showed his skiing ability against Villarreal at the weekend but was unlucky in front of goal.

"He did everything I told him to do," Ancelotti commented dryly on Bale's performance, which was only enough for a 0-0 draw.

So everyone hopes that Benzema will be fit again this Tuesday in Paris.