There are arguments in favor of both. The choice is yours!
Real Madrid’s legendary roster of the 2010s is melting before our eyes. And now there is nothing left of the attacking trio: Cristiano Ronaldo left in 2018, the club finally parted ways with Gareth Bale a year ago, and now Karim Benzema is leaving Madrid. Bale is the most controversial character of the trio, but his former partners are rightly considered legends of Real Madrid.
Legendary players in general are usually evaluated after the fact. Ronaldo and Benzema continue their careers, but we will not see them at Real Madrid anymore, so we can sum up the Madrid numbers.
Here are Ronaldo’s main numbers: nine years, 438 games, 450 goals, 131 assists, 15 trophies. Benzema stayed at Real for a long time, so he has this: 14 years, 647 matches, 353 goals, 165 assists, 25 trophies.
And which of this pair of top strikers is more legendary for Real Madrid? Let’s compare!
1 PLACE.
Ronaldo is more legendary for Real Madrid
Seriously? Do we need to explain why Ronaldo is more of a Real Madrid legend? That’s like explaining that two times two equals four, but let’s spell out the obvious anyway.
Legendary is composed of soccer and non-football components. The degree of popularity is not always directly proportional to the level of play. When it comes to image, Ronaldo remains number one in modern soccer. The most popular person on social networks (I’m not talking about athletes, but people in general). The whole world walks around wearing Ronaldo’s shirts. You can still compare him with Messi, but certainly not with Benzema. In this respect, the status of a legend is a little premature to try on the Frenchman.
And now, about soccer. What is more correct to take into account. Of course, Benzema is a great player and since he has been at Real longer, he won more titles with him. But if we compare players individually, the Golden Balls and personal statistics will still be more indicative than the number of team titles. Otherwise, we may come to the conclusion that Carvajal is more legendary than Ronaldo. That’s ridiculous.
One last thing. The first and second team roles are distributed according to the ability of the players. Benzema and Ronaldo have played a huge amount of time together, nine seasons. It is obvious who has been the key player all that time. Ronaldo was played for a reason – he made himself the main and others a bit secondary. Sometimes he clearly overdid it, but if we are talking about legendary, we are talking about those who took the game and decided. In this respect, Benzema lost the internal competition for leadership.
