Football Espana
·17 September 2021
In partnership with
Yahoo sportsFootball Espana
·17 September 2021
Former Real Madrid frontman Gonzalo Higuain has opened up on his Santiago Bernabeu departure.
Higuain spent around six years at Real Madrid in all between, making 190 La Liga appearances between 2007 and 2013, scoring an impressive 107 times.
But he wound up joining Napoli in 2013 having been replaced by Karim Benzema, a player he got on well with, even if he was far from thrilled with the Frenchman’s arrival.
Higuain, who is now with Inter Miami, told ESPN via Diario AS: “In the first training session, I remember that Capello picked me.
“After one year I scored 27 goals, Cristiano 26…and in the summer they brought in Benzema and Kaka.
“I said: ‘how can this be? How many goals have I scored? I’m a scorer and you bring me Benzema and Kaka’
“Karim came in and he got the best out of me and me him.
“It was a very healthy competition with Benzema.
“They saw that he was a brilliant striker. Unfortunately, we could not play much together.”
Higuain was a success at Real Madrid, managing an excellent scoring record and also winning three La Liga titles.
But he wasn’t able to win a Champions League, and that’s something Benzema has helped Los Blancos do on four occasions.
That tells you the Frenchman was the upgrade Real Madrid needed and at the right time, and it was only four years after his exit that Higuain actually lost a Champions League final to Real Madrid with Juventus.
Though, as Higuain eludes to, it would have been interesting to see the pair play together a little more ahead of the Argentine’s eventual exit.