Lyon's Alexandre Lacazatte looks to Karim Benzema for inspiration

Reigning Ligue 1 Player of the Year Alexandre Lacazette has again led his hometown club to second place in the Ligue 1 table, and in so doing, is hoping to emulate another Lyon youth product, Karim Benzema.

It's impossible not to take notice of the similarities in the career arcs of the two Lyonnais-born strikers. Benzema joined the club's youth set-up as a nine-year old before spending five seasons with the senior club, winning four top-flight titles with the side. Lacazette joined Lyon's youth academy in 2003 as a 12-year-old, spending seven years there before joining the senior side, where he's scored 52 times in five seasons.

"Everybody dreams of having a career like Karim's," Lacazette told Canal Football Club, courtesy of ESPN FC.

"If at the end of the season there's the chance to leave because I've had a good season and I've brought the club to where it wants to be, there aren't any problems."

Speculation on the part of the ten-time capped French international will do little to endear himself to Lyon supporters, though without star playmaker Nabil Fekir, Lacazette is very much the straw that stirs gaffer Hubert Fournier's drink as the club seeks consecutive second-place finishes.

"For now I'm still under contract, so there's no problem staying either."

Differences between club and their first-choice attacker are nothing new, with signs of a rift becoming apparent during summer contract discussions that left the striker "hurt and disappointed."

Amid uncertainty with Lyon, Lacazette turned to former Arsenal and French legend Thierry Henry for advice.

"He told me things which I wasn't thinking of," Lacazette said. "Like that you no longer have the right to be average after having had a good season, that you can no longer be satisfied with certain things.

"They were things that I wasn't really paying attention to. So it's true that when you have that in mind it allows me to work and produce better performances."

Lacazette could do worse than heeding the advice of one French goal-scoring legend, while striving for a career similar to that of another.