Karim Mostafa Benzema was born on 19 December 1987, in Lyon, France. Benzema has an Algerian ancestry and is a practicing Muslim. He is a professional football player who plays for Spanish club Real Madrid and the France national team. He plays as a striker and has started his professional career in 1996.
So how rich is Karim Benzema? According to various sources, his net worth is estimated to be over $40 million. No doubt that Karim can associate his wealth with professional career spanning for about twenty years.
Karim Benzema Net Worth $40 Million
Karim’s Benzema’s father, Hafid, was born in Tighzert and his mother, Wahida Djebbara, was born in Lyon. Benzema grew up with eight other siblings in Bron (suburb of Lyon) and is s the third youngest in the family. His younger brothers Sabri and Gressy are football players as well. Benzema’s early career began since he started playing for Lyon club Bron Terraillon at the age of eight. After scoring two goals in the match against Lyon youth academy, he gained the nickname Coco and attracted attention from bigger clubs.
In 2004, Benzmema started playing for Olympique Lyonnais club and stayed there for five years. While playing there, he suffered the major thigh injury and missed three months of action in 2007. The same year, Karim became the leading striker and switched to the number 10 shirt. One year later footballer prolonged his contract with Lyon football club until 2013 and that made him one of the highest paid football player in the whole France. No wonder, he managed to gain his net worth during the short period of time.
However, in 2009 Lyon club announced that the compliance with the Spanish football club Real Madrid for the relocation of Karim Benzema was made. Later, in 2014, the Real Madrid club announced that Karim signed a five-year contract.
Benzema is also a member of the national France football team since 2008. However, his first match against Romania was critized by social media. Despite the unfortunate start, Karim continued playing for the team in FIFA World Cup in 2010, 2012 and 2014 and proved social media being wrong about him.
Despite being footballer, Karim also appears in various commercials, such as FIFA video game. He’s also in the campaign for sportswear brand Adidas. Of course, these commercials have gained a part of his net worth as well.
In his personal life, Benzema is not married but he has a long term girlfriend Chloé de Launay. She gave birth to their first child – daughter Melia in 2014. Karim has had some legal issues, since he was accused of having sex with a prostitute being only sixteen years old. More, he was arrested for blackmailing another France international team player Mathieu Valbuena in 2015. Benzema has won many honors while playing for Lyon and Real Madrid, such as UEFA Super Cup: 2014,FIFA Club World Cup: 2014 and some individual awards, like Bravo Award in 2008 and French Player of the Year in 2011, 2012 and 2014.
