"The current team needs a leader," Benzema said about the current Real Madrid!

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·18 November 2025

"The current team needs a leader," Benzema said about the current Real Madrid!

The French star speaks about his former team.

Karim Benzema

OneFootball Videos

After moving to the Saudi League in the summer of 2023, French striker Karim Benzema had a remarkable experience in the Saudi Professional League with Al-Ittihad Jeddah. The French striker achieved remarkable numbers with the Jeddah club, and he is the most important element in the team and the most prominent leader as well.

In an exclusive interview with the Spanish newspaper AS, the Spaniard expressed his own opinion about Xabi Alonso's current team, stating that their previous generation should never be compared to the current one.

Football now is different, it’s something else. There’s no need to compare our Real Madrid team with the current one. The current Real Madrid may have more things, but they lack a leader, although sometimes in this football a leader is not necessary. They are young, many of them play in their national teams and are leaders there, they have Champions League titles… They have to find what the leader contributes and provides to the team.

Benzema said.

Speaking specifically about the stars, the French striker stressed that Real Madrid greatly needs his fellow Frenchman Mbappé to give his best to the team in all competitions.

There will be matches in which Mbappé will not touch the ball. What we expect from Kylian is that when he has it, he scores. Real Madrid is like that. He is in much better form now; scoring goals is not new to him. He did it at PSG and at Real Madrid he is going to score goals, many more. I think Vinicius, Mbappé, Rodrygo although he doesn’t play much, Bellingham... They have to talk. One is there to score goals, another to give assists. We are not going to tell Bellingham to score goals because that’s what Mbappé is for and Mbappé won’t be the number 10 because that is Bellingham. They have to talk. He is better, but he has to focus more at this moment when Real Madrid needs him because he has everything to do it.

Benzema concluded.