Karim Benzema has opened up about the selfless role he adopted during his time playing with Cristiano Ronaldo.
Despite being the No.9 and the man who led the line, for years the former Lyon man was a support act to the five-time Ballon d'Or winner.
Of Ronaldo's 450 goals for Los Blancos, the underrated Benzema assisted 47 of them and proved to be a great foil for the Portuguese forward.
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However, 32-year-old has admitted he did have to adapt his game for the benefit of Ronaldo, who did what he does and scored a hatful of goals.
Speaking on Movistar + program Universo Valdano, he said: "In Lyon I played in another way. Now I'm free on the pitch, I like to touch the ball.
"With Cristiano I changed my style, I played for him.
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I had someone who did double or triple my goals and I had to adapt.
"I thought it wouldn't cost me anything, I just had to change my way of playing and pass it on to him more.
"I put my goal scoring aside."
In Ronaldo's final season in the Spanish capital, Benzema only notched but five goals in 32 appearances but when he made a £99 million switch to Juventus in 2018, the Frenchman stepped up and became Real's main source of goals.
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With Ronaldo in Turin, he scored 21 goals in consecutive La Liga campaigns - with his strikers helping Zinedine Zidane's side to a 34th Spanish league title last term.
Still, goals are not the be-all-and-end-all for Benzema, who idolised the great Ronaldo Nazario.
"A striker has to now how to do lots of things, not just score goals," he added.
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"I can score goals but, if I don't touch the ball for 90 minutes, that's a problem.
"If I'm on the field and I score okay but I want to show people more things and not just goals. I watched football for Ronaldo Nazario. I was watching and trying to imitate him. It was hard to clear... He was the best. I didn't see anything like it, there isn't."
Topics: Football News, Football, Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo, Real Madrid
