Madrid, July 11 (DPA) Around 15,000 Real Madrid fans welcomed Karim Benzema to the club Thursday night, in another spectacular presentation of its new signings.
Benzema, 21, has been signed by Real from French giants Lyon for around 35 million euros (48.63 million dollars).
Real president Florentino Perez – who has spent around 210 million euros on Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Raul Albiol – introduced Benzema as the “best young player in the French league”.
The young striker, who has still not been assigned a squad number, said in halting Spanish: “I am very happy to play for the best club in the world.
“I am very happy to play for the same club as my idols (Zinedine) Zidane and Ronaldo.”
Zidane, currently one of Perez’s advisers, and Ronaldo were two of the “Galactico” stars signed by Perez in his first spell as Real president from 2000 to 2003.
Meanwhile, sports daily Marca reported on its website that Real are poised to sell unwanted striker Klaas jan Huntelaar to Vfb Stuttgart for around 20 million euros, approximately the same price they paid for him to Ajax in December 2008.
Huntelaar has failed to fit in at Real and was not registered for the knockout stages of the Champions League.
Rival website AS claimed French club Marseille were also interested in Huntelaar.
rounak