Havertz to replace Benzema?! Real Madrid must be kidding

Stuart Telford

• 6 Jun 2023 19:00 BST
• 4 min read

Real Madrid are reportedly lining up Kai Havertz to replace the Al-Ittihad-bound Karim Benzema, apparently not having watched the Chelsea man for the past three seasons.

Benzema recently brought the curtain down on 14 glittering seasons at Real Madrid, and now looks set to agree a €200 million-a-year deal with Saudi Pro League side Al-Ittihad.

Benzema leaves as the reigning Ballon d'Or winner, one who has scored 354 goals on the way to winning five Champions Leagues with European football's most successful club.

READ: Chelsea star WANTS OUT as Real prepare to pounce

With Brazilian prodigy Endrick only arriving in the summer of 2024 once he turns 18, Real have a gap to plug next season, and they are ready to attempt that with the €70m acquisition of Havertz from Chelsea.

Havertz has some European pedigree of his own, having scored the winner as Chelsea beat Manchester City in the 2021 Champions League final, but that was one of just 32 goals he has scored in three years at Blues - hardly the numbers of an elite striker.

And that's because Havertz is not an elite striker.

Real have been tracking him since his Bayer Leverkusen days, but back then he was a modern No.10, making late breaks into the box. Havertz scored 18 goals in his final season in Germany. He concluded his most recent campaign in England with half that - despite now playing up front.

READ: Chelsea give Real Madrid OUTRAGEOUS demand for Benzema replacement

In Havertz's defence, the suspicion is that he has been used out of position at Chelsea, and it's not for nothing that the Premier League is rated two places and 26.517 points better than the Bundesliga in UEFA's latest country coefficients.

A square peg in a round hole

But it is as a striker that Real would be signing him. They tend to play a 4-3-3, and can populate their midfield and then some next season with Jude Bellingham set to join a stable of players that includes Luka Modric, Toni Kroos, Aurelien Tchouameni, Federico Valverde and Eduardo Camavinga.

It is up front, in the space left by Benzema, where Havertz would be playing. And Real would be paying €70m for a player who needed 362 minutes per goal last season.

This is a summer in which both Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane have only one year left on their contracts at Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham Hotspur respectively. They may cost twice as much as Havertz, but Real would be getting at least twice the striker.

If they spend such a significant fraction of those potential budgets on a player who doesn’t fit their system - and certainly not as a striker - some serious questions will have to be asked at the Bernabeu.