Every now and again a story will be published that will make me question what sort of a world we are living in. This morning I woke up to a debate of epicly ridiculous proportions: Who is worse....Karim Benzema or David Villa? Are they serious? Debates between Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo or Pele and Maradona I can understand. But this? Who is worse....a guy that has just helped Spain win the World Cup, beating Spains record goals tally weeks later, or a dopy Frenchman that has failed to justify even a quarter of his mammoth €35 million fee and was left out of Frances World Cup squad after a shocking debut season at Real Madrid? After an initial giggle, I decided there must be something more to it, aside from the customary Barca-bashing that the Madrid press so often revel in. I wasn't wrong.
Silly Season In La Liga As We Debate Who’s Worse...Karim Benzema Or David Villa?
The journalists in question may well be partisan, whiter than white, but they’re not stupid. I don’t genuinely believe they regard this as a rational debate. There’s a little bit of history with David Villa and most of it involves the darling of the Bernabeu, Raúl Gonzalez Blanco. Many in Madrid see Villa as the man who stole the number 7 jersey off Raúl for the national side. The man who pushed Raúl out of the limelight, signalling the beginning of the end for ‘El Gran Capitan’. They havn’t done too badly since though, have they? Although to lay the blame at Villas door is unfair in the extreme, if indeed there is any blame to lay. He didn’t pick the squads or the team. That wily old fox Luis Aragonés did and looking back you can’t argue with that decision.
Then we come to the record goals tally. No prizes for guessing who held the record before David Villa. Of course it was Raúl, who managed 44 goals in the red and yellow of Spain before being forced to call it a day in 2008. Now that record has been broken by Villa after he slotted in his 45th goal from the penalty spot at Hampden Park. At only 28 years of age, there are plenty more goals to come from ‘El Guaje’. How that must bite at Marca HQ. And let’s not forget that the striker from Asturias had a choice to make at the end of last season. Swap the white of Valencia for the white of Madrid, or travel up north to the Camp Nou. After choosing to join the Pep dream team, it’s hardly surprising he’s not flavour of the month in the capital.
So we come to this season. David Villa has been uncharacteristically off-colour infront of goal, but even then he outguns Karim Benzema. With four goals to his name he is averaging a goal every 209 minutes in all competitions compared to a goal every 323 minutes for Benzema. The Frenchman has already had a year and a half to accustom himself to the demands made of any player at Real Madrid, whereas Villa has hardly had a chance to unpack. Have no doubts that soon, very soon, we will see David Villa back to his freescoring best while Karim Benzema is put out of his misery and shown the Bernabeu trapdoor. Then this silly little debate will be put to bed for good.
PS. Maradona and Messi every time.
