Benzema Surpasses Legendary Puskas, Joins Ronaldo, Raul In Real Madrid’s Special Club [Video]

KEY POINTS

Benzema is now among Real's top 5 all-time goal scorers
He scored a brace in Real's 3-0 win over Valencia
He is also Real's top scorer this season with 21 goals

Karim Benzema has surpassed Real Madrid legend Ferenc Puskas to be among the top five of the club’s all-time goal-scorers.

Benzema scored twice in Real Madrid’s 3-0 win over Valencia that moved the club back within two points of La Liga leaders FC Barcelona. Benzema, after scoring the brace, now has 243 goals, one more than Hungarian great Puskas, and is only behind Cristiano Ronaldo (450), Raul (323), Alfredo Di Stéfano (308), who played for three national sides (Spain, Argentina, and Colombia), and Spanish striker Santillana (290).

The Frenchman, who moved from Lyon to Real Madrid in 2009, has admitted that he had never imagined he would someday be among Real Madrid’s top five scorers.

"I didn't imagine anything like this, I'm very happy. I've been working for a long time now and I always put it in to keep improving. I hope I can keep going. I'm very happy to be playing for this club,” said Benzema, according to Real Madrid’s official website.

Speaking about the Valencia match Thursday, Benzema said it was not an easy fixture for the Madrid side.

"It wasn't an easy game due to the opposition who made it hard, but we won and didn't concede. It's very important because Valencia are a very good team. For the second goal, everything happened so fast. It was a cross from Marco, I control it, I shot with the left foot and it went in. It looks easy, but you have to do it so fast,” added Benzema, whose second goal was an assist from the 24-year-old forward Marco Asensio.

The 32-year-old Benzema now has scored 21 goals in 38 matches this season for Real Madrid across all competitions. He is currently the top scorer for the Bernabeu side in this campaign and the fact that the next best is a defender shows the club’s struggles. Ramos, with eight goals, is second on the goals chart for Real this season ahead of Brazilian winger Rodrygo (7 goals), Germany’s Toni Kroos (6 goals), and one-time Ballon d’Or winner Luka Modric (5 goals).