Former Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema is considering retiring this season and becoming Real Madrid’s ambassador with a focus on the Middle East, according to a report.
The man who won football’s most prestigious individual award in 2022 has already agreed to represent his former club worldwide. Relief said, adding that the 36-year-old will most likely stop playing when his Al Ittihad contract ends in 2026.
The media claimed that Benzema has “not yet made a final decision” on whether he will hang up his boots at the end of this season, saying that he has missed the training sessions with the Saudi Pro League club that are being held , “starts to get tired” in the afternoon due to the high morning temperatures in Jeddah.
When we talk, we have to take responsibility ☄️ #alhamdulillah 🤲🏼🤍 pic.twitter.com/tBVu2qmiWz
— Karim Benzema (@Benzema) December 6, 2024
Benzema in Saudi Arabia
After leaving Madrid a year before the end of his contract, Benzema joined Al-Ittihad in 2023 on a three-year contract.
In his first season he scored 13 goals and eight assists in 29 games, which is low by his prolific standards, as Al-Ittihad endured a turbulent 2023/24 season, finishing the season without a trophy and finishing fifth in the top flight, dismissing the current Nottingham Forestry Manager Nuno Espirito Santo in November.
Former Barcelona sporting director Ramon Planes joined the nine-time champions in the same role he held with the Spanish giants in January, and former PSG coach Laurent Blanc has led them to the top of the table since he left July replaced the Argentinian Marcelo Gallardo.
Despite missing three games due to injury, Benzema has contributed ten goals in ten league games, including one in a 2-1 win over Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr in Al-Ittihad’s final game before the winter break.
With that look into the future @Saudi2034bid 🇸🇦🏆 pic.twitter.com/Z8ZsUDaFUr
— Karim Benzema (@Benzema) December 8, 2024
Benzema Real Madrid stats
A five-time Champions League winner in 14 years at Madrid, Benzema is the club’s second-highest goalscorer of all time with 354 goals, behind his former teammate Ronaldo, who scored 451.
He is said to be happy to live in Madrid again and expand his “excellent relationship” with the Spanish champions’ current president, Florentino Perez.
The 2022 World Cup runner-up with France has said in interviews that he sees himself as an ambassador for football in Saudi Arabia who can help attract more top European footballers to the league.
The report said there was “no one better” than Benzema to “carry Madrid’s name across Arabia and be a marketing attraction in a booming economic market.”
Al-Ittihad next face reigning Saudi champions Al-Hilal, who are two points behind them in the Pro League, in the King Cup quarter-finals on January 7 (17:30 GMT).
