Karim Benzema has signed a massive two-year contract with Saudi Pro League club Al Ittihad, ESPN reported Tuesday.
The contract is worth nearly $215 million per year, making it almost level with the 2023 NFL salary cap of $224.8 million. It eclipses that of the highest-paid NFL player, Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, who earns $52 million per year.
The 2022 Ballon d’Or winner joins the current Saudi Pro League champions based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from Spanish giants Real Madrid as a free agent. Al Ittihad broke the news about this addition on Twitter and has been celebrating it in various tweets ever since.
Benzema ends an illustrious 14-year chapter at Real Madrid, which saw him rack up 353 goals in 648 matches, or roughly a goal in every two games on average. (RELATED: Al-Hilal Offers Lionel Messi Over $400 Million Per Year That Could Potentially Set Up Glorious Rivalry With Ronaldo)
Karim Benzema applauds the fans during his last match for Real Madrid on June 04, 2023. (Photo by Florencia Tan Jun/Getty Images)
Benzema, who is also Madrid’s second-highest goalscorer after former Madridista and five-time Ballon d’Or-winning Cristiano Ronaldo, will be competing with his former teammate in the Saudi Pro League, as Ronaldo’s Al Nassr finished second in the league, behind Al Ittihad.
Benzema retired from international football as the fifth-highest goalscorer for the French national team, ending a checkered international career for a sometimes fractious national team.
Benzema’s move, like Ronaldo’s, is redolent of the big-money soccer acquisitions in the Chinese Super League 10 years ago, according to The New York Times. It is expected to boost soccer’s visibility even further, particularly across the Middle East, and overall could be good news for soccer.