Karim Benzema has scored two hat-tricks in four days.
Karim Benzema was unstoppable in 2022, the year he won the Ballon d’Or. With his latest back-to-back hat-tricks, against Valladolid and Barcelona, Benzema is the top scorer in Europe’s top five leagues. The French striker has 17 goals in all competitions, a record matched only by Marcus Rashford, but the Madrid man has a better average. Erling Haaland, who has scored eight goals in the last two games he has played, is on 15, the same as Victor Osimhen. Kylian Mbappé is on 14 goals.
Benzema started 2023 on fire, with 10 goals in 11 games, but just before the break he went into a drought with one goal (against Liverpool at the Bernabéu) in the last five games he played before the international break. The 35-year-old took advantage of the FIFA dates to tone up and the results have been immediate. In two games, he has two hat-tricks and a place in the Copa del Rey final.
The Benzema of 2023 is looking more and more like the Benzema who won the Ballon d’Or. He started the season on the back foot. Injuries meant that his participation was intermittent in the first three months of the campaign. Until the World Cup, he had scored six goals in 12 games, an average of one goal every 159 minutes. They were stats more typical to the ‘Cristiano era’ than the goalscorer who has been growing season after season after the departure of the Portuguese.
Benzema coming into form in 2023
Benzema has 17 goals in 18 games in 2023 and a goalscoring average of one goal every 89 minutes. He is once again battling with Robert Lewandowski for the Pichichi in La Liga. The Polish striker, who has played 400 minutes more, has 17 goals, while the Frenchman has 14.
So far in 2023, he is averaging fewer shots than in the 2022 part of the current season. But he is more effective in front of goal. Up to December, 13.8 percent of his shots were on target. That is, he needed seven attempts to score. In 2023, he scores with 23.3% of his shots. He needs just over four shots to score.