After Karim Benzema won this year’s Ballon d’Or award on Monday night, a provision in his contract requires Real Madrid to pay €1 million to Lyon.
In 2009, the Frenchman moved from Lyon to Los Blancos.
Following only his former teammate Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema has gone on to score 328 goals for Madrid, the second-highest total in the club’s history.
As the LaLiga giants captured both the league championship and the Champions League trophy, the 34-year-old scored 44 goals.
Real Madrid will have to pay €1m (£870k) to Lyon due to a provision agreed upon between the clubs when Benzema transferred to the Spanish capital from Lyon in 2009 because that was the add-on included for winning the Ballon d’Or trophy.
“It is an immense pride with a lot of emotion because Karim is a child of Lyon.
“He is a child that we have seen grow up and that we have seen flourish. We have seen him succeed in almost everything he has undertaken,” Lyon’s president, Jean-Michel Aulas, said after the ceremony.
“And then that is partly for us, as we not only hired him since his first contracts, he signed them with us – that is a source of pride. Pride imprinted with a message, that of being an example and a leader because having a youngster like Karim who only plays two clubs in his entire career is special.”
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