Xabi Alonso Compares Joao Pedro to Benzema and Haaland

Xabi Alonso did not flinch. Asked if Joao Pedro belongs in the same conversation as Erling Haaland, the Chelsea manager went straight for it.

“I would say yes,” he replied.

For a striker still feeling his way into a second season at Stamford Bridge, it was a thunderous vote of confidence. For Alonso, who shared a dressing room with Karim Benzema for 195 games at Real Madrid, it was also a familiar feeling.

Because when Alonso looks at Joao Pedro, he sees echoes of Benzema – and a forward operating at a level to trouble even Haaland.

A blistering start and a major award

Joao Pedro has opened this campaign like a player in a hurry. Two goals, two assists in his first three league games. Enough to land him the Premier League Player of the Month award on Friday, the first of his career and a prize wrestled away from team-mate Cole Palmer, who held it back in September 2024.

At 24, the Brazil international suddenly looks like the centrepiece of Chelsea’s attack rather than a promising accessory. The club clearly saw this coming. Last month, they tied him down to a new contract running to 2034 and handed him the fabled number nine shirt at the start of the season – a number that has weighed heavily on others at Stamford Bridge.

He has worn it lightly.

In his debut campaign, Joao Pedro became the first Chelsea striker since Diego Costa to hit 20 goals in a single season. Across 57 matches since arriving last summer, he has delivered 25 goals and 11 assists. Those are the numbers of a leading man, not a supporting act.

Haaland’s output, of course, remains monstrous. In his last 57 games for Manchester City, the Norwegian has rattled in 42 goals and laid on nine more. A specialist finisher. A penalty-box predator. A Golden Boot winner with 27 league goals last season.

And yet Alonso still puts his own number nine in that bracket.

“If you count how many top strikers we have in the Premier League, I'm sure that Joao is there, Haaland for sure is there. So I would rate him that way,” he said.

The Benzema comparison

The Haaland comparison is bold. The Benzema one is personal.

Alonso watched Benzema grow from a talented forward into a Ballon d’Or winner during their time together at Real Madrid. He knows exactly what an all-round centre-forward looks like at the highest level. That is the template he sees in Joao Pedro.

“In many things he reminds me of Benzema, because he is good in the box, he is good out of the box, he is good coming to his left side, he is good with the head, he is very complete, he is intelligent,” Alonso said.

That word – complete – is doing a lot of work. Haaland lives to finish moves. Joao Pedro can start them, link them and still arrive to finish them off.

Across his career, he has played as a midfielder, a number 10 and a winger. He drifts left, drops short, attacks the area. The goals are there, but so is the glue. He is as comfortable combining in tight spaces as he is attacking crosses, as happy threading passes as taking the shot himself.

Benzema built a career on that blend of subtlety and ruthlessness. The Frenchman, now 38 and a free agent, has 523 goals in 994 appearances for France, Lyon, Real Madrid and Saudi Arabian sides Al-Ittihad and Al-Hilal. Those numbers tell the story of a forward who never needed to shout to dominate a game.

Alonso hears the same quiet authority in Joao Pedro’s game. Not the finished article yet, but on the right path.

“So yes, he is still young, still things to develop, but many, many absolutely outstanding qualities that he has,” the Chelsea manager added.

Brazil pain, Chelsea response

The story could have taken a different turn this summer. Joao Pedro watched the World Cup from the outside, a surprise omission from Brazil’s squad under Carlo Ancelotti – the same Ancelotti who once coached Alonso at Real Madrid.

For any Brazilian forward, that kind of rejection cuts deep. For Joao Pedro, it might have become a distraction. Instead, he has channelled it.

Asked whether that snub had lit the fire for this season, Alonso pushed the idea away.

“He had enough motivation. He already had enough within him, so I didn't need to go there,” he said. “It was painful for him, but that is in the past. We are now focused on what he is doing well and what he can do better.”

The response has been emphatic. Joao Pedro has forced his way back into the Brazil picture, recalled for September’s fixtures against New Zealand and India. At club level, he has become the reference point for a Chelsea side trying to define itself under a new coach.

“He has been outstanding. Not just in football terms, but in his personality, his maturity and his desire,” Alonso said. “He has a very clear goal this season, which is to have a great campaign and score a lot of goals.”

The challenge now is clear. Haaland will keep scoring at a frightening rate. Benzema’s legacy is already carved into European football history. Joao Pedro stands somewhere between those two poles – a modern nine with the instincts of a ten, trusted by a manager who has seen greatness up close.

Chelsea have given him the shirt, the contract and the responsibility.

The rest of the season will reveal whether Alonso’s comparisons are early-season enthusiasm, or the first draft of a new leading man’s story.