Karim Benzema Hearts Lyon

Lyon’s Karim Benzema has been good as his word and put pen to paper on a nive new contract. And not just any contract. This one goes to 2013.

With pretty much every moneybags club in Europe sniffing Benzema’s butt recently, the general feeling was that the 20 year old striker would be on his bike this summer, with Alex Ferguson sniffing particularly hard. And who can blame him. Benzema is hot property (see above.) But he’s a hot property who’s staying with Lyon:

In my head it was clear that I wanted to continue my progression here and not exile myself in Spain, England or Italy. I’m happy in Lyon, I was born here, I live here, I want to continue learning at Olympique Lyonnais. Everyone has faith in me, my team-mates are behind me. I really want to win lots of titles, starting with a cup-league double this season and I’d love to one day win the Champions League with Lyon. There’s still so much to do.”

He probably won’t stay forever, but the new contract means he’ll stay at least another couple of years and then Lyon will still be able to command a transfer fee with many many zeros on the end. As Inara says on Lyon Offside, this is a great example to other Ligue 1 youngsters like Samir Nasri and Hatem Ben Arfa. So it’s not just good news for Lyon, it’s good news for Ligue 1 as a whole. Unless you’re a defender.

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Category: French Ligue 1