Real Madrid might want both Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland this summer but Karim Benzema’s latest Champions League hat-trick shows they already have the world’s deadliest number nine.

There is an even an argument to say Benzema is the finest player in the world full-stop right now, after he upstaged Mbappe in Madrid’s demolition of Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16 and with Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah struggling for form.

Carlo Ancelotti said in November Benzema was “not crying” about another Ballon d’Or passing him by, the rankings instead putting the Frenchman fourth.

Continue reading this article on SportsDesk, the sports website of the Times of Malta

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