Real Madrid With Karim Benzema Void To Fill As La Liga Returns
Real Madrid begin life after Karim Benzema looking to wrest back the Spanish title from Barcelona as the La Liga season kicks off this weekend, seemingly content to play the waiting game for Kylian Mbappe. Benzema, the reigning Ballon d'Or, swapped the Santiago Bernabeu for Saudi Arabia in June after 14 seasons in Madrid, where he is second on the club's all-time goalscoring list with 354 -- trailing only Cristiano Ronaldo. In a bid to bridge the 10-point gap that separated them from Barcelona last season, Madrid splashed out 103 million euros ($112 million) on England international Jude Bellingham and swooped for Turkish prodigy Arda Guler.
