Striking the right balance

First things first. How the hell do you pronounce Benzema? Where does the stress go? The Spanish are putting it on the last 'a', making it a BenzemAAAAAAAAAAAAA. The English are sticking with a low key 'Ben-zem-a'. Unfortunately TRL doesn't have any French buddies on hand to consult how our gallic neighbours pronounce it. Never mind. It was just a thought.

We wouldn't put it past Florentino having consulted the Algerians on the issue, however. It all clicks into place. Mr. President took approximately 14.3 seconds to compare the signing of Karem Benzema to Zinedine Zidane - they did sign for the club on the same date after all! And they're French! And their families hail from Algeria! And they're talented! Brilliant!

The marketing aspect of Marca's best value 'money-for-quality-signing' stumbled no sooner had Benzema turned his back to the cameras. He may not be the most extrovert and confident of young men, although the "1,2,3, Hala Madrid!" belied any stage fright he may have felt upon his first appearance at the Bernabeu. Rather, the issue is the shirt number. "I like the number 10, but I'll have to wait and see," he confessed at the press conference. Wes may have a thing or two to say about that, although Valdano seems willing to offload Sneijder to make some pocket money, so perhaps he won't. 

So Karem always dreamed of playing for Real Madrid, his idol was Fat Ronaldo, he's happy to kiss the badge, he's young and is a goal scoring machine. Muy bien. 

On the first day of the pre-season, however, appeared the first slight hitch. Not for Benzema, although the thought may have popped into his head too when he saw 5 other strikers trying to latch onto the crosses, but rather for the man in charge. Manuel Pellegrini and his staff will have noticed one major problem. The squad size.

Benzema rocked up at Valdebebas for Day 1 along with new faces CR9, Ezequiel Garay and paperweight Alvaro Negredo, plus 21 other first teamers. Iker, Sergio Ramos, Albiol and Ricky are still on holiday. We make it 29. Plus two more new faces (that left back and midfielder) makes it a six player overfill for the official 25-man squad. 

That is Pellegrini's problem. And Valdano's. As for Benzema, he just has the small task of adapting to a new league, a new country, huge expectation and fighting off the challenge for a place in the first team, plus the evil stares of messrs Raúl, Higuaín, Negredo, Huntelaar and Van Nistelrooy. Welcome to Madrid, Karem.

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