Karim Benzema at Punto Pelota

Karim was on Punto Pelota last night, and he spoke Spanish mostly the entire way through, although he would lapse into French when he couldn’t express himself in Spanish.  He’s really adorable when he smiles, which he should do more often!  And I love his French-accented Spanish!  The interview itself wasn’t too great (I thought the journalists on the show were a bit mean to him) but there were some highlights:

– Karim prefers listening and speaking in the locker room to taking Spanish lessons.  He says he talks the most with Cristiano and Kaká because they take risks with him and he likes it (just don’t end up with a Portuguese accent in Spanish, ok Karim?).  He adds that he understands everything and talks with everyone.  And that he gets along “muy bien” with Higuaín.

– Bron is everything to him, because it’s his hometown and where his family – parents, five sisters, three brothers – live, and they’re all very close.  They come to visit only once in a while, because his younger brothers are still in school.  His family and his friends are what he misses the most about France (he has a lot of friends in France, not as many here).  When FP wanted to sign him, he came to his house, had a coke and talked with his parents.

– he doesn’t know of any Spanish hip hop groups.

– the two stripes in his hair are a style for a friend that lives in Lyon.

– it was “un momento muy grande” when he met (original) Ronaldo, whom he considers the best forward of all time.

– when asked what Paris means to him, he said the capital of France.

– Karim prefers eating fish to meat.

– it was Óscar Ribot who convinced him to say the “1, 2, 3 Hala Madrid” during his presentation.

– with regards to videogames, he likes playing as Inter on Play because he’s very good at defense, and his favorite game is FIFA 11 (the others laughed at him because he’s the face of the game).

– the thing he likes best about being in Madrid is being in the Bernabéu.

– when asked whether he lived alone, he said yes because “soy un gran chico.”  He has a dog named Leonidas (I bet Álvaro’s jealous) and he says jokingly that he can see Cris from his house – but in reality, they do live very close to each other and sometimes run into each other.

– a typical day in the life of Karim Benzema: training session, home, sometimes a siesta of two hours, workout in the home gym, TV, sleep.

They also showed Karim a picture of him as a 10-year-old, on his first ficha, and he laughed and laughed.  He added that he scored more goals back then than now.   He was an adorable kid!

More pictures here!  And watch part one of the interview here, part two here, part three here and part four here.