Everything was ultimately much too good. Reconciled with Didier Deschamps, winner of the 2022 Ballon d’Or after walking on water with Real Madrid, Karim Benzema (34) appeared to be one of the main offensive weapons of the France team at the dawn of the 2022 World Cup. But now, the Real Madrid striker was quickly disillusioned. Short of form, he injured himself (quadriceps) alone in training with the Blues, in Qatar, when he had just returned to the group on November 19. A new physical glitch forcing him to forfeit even before the start of the competition.
The adventure therefore came to an end for KB9, he whose the delicate history with the World will always reason as a huge regret for French football. Quickly, when he had left the hotel of the France group in the middle of the night, rumors began to flourish, according to which the tricolor players, or at least a part, would be relieved by the departure of Karim Benzema. While the France team was gaining momentum in this 2022 World Cup, Karim Benzema found himself on the pitch with Real Madrid. Quickly, we wondered if the Nueve could not return to Qatar, since he is still on the French list, or downright if the staff had not been a bit quick with him.
The towel still burns between Benzema and Deschamps
As Didier Deschamps and Guy Stéphan recently explained, Karim Benzema will not return to Qatar, and it was never even a question of it, as recalled The Team this Saturday. The former Lyonnais, who has refused Emmanuel Macron’s invitation, should not even join his teammates for the grand final of the World Cup, this Sunday (4 p.m.), against Argentina. The sports daily adds that no one, within the FFF or the management of the Blues, knows how the Merengue will position themselves in relation to a possible status of world champion and the bonuses that would go with it.
But The Team confirms above all that there is indeed water in the gas, again, between Didier Deschamps and Karim Benzema, and that the old tensions between the two men have been revived by the package of the Real striker. So much so that DD and KB9 should make things clear again, like what was done just before Euro 2020, which marked Benzema’s big return to the France team. As it could have filtered at the time, the entourage of Benzema did not understand the management of his injury before the World Cup, even though the doctor of the Blues was in conflict with that of Casa Blanca and that no risk was taken to avoid “polluting” the competition.
Benzema did not understand the staff of the Blues
This is perhaps the rub, because Karim Benzema would have liked to stay with his partners to heal and keep all his chances of taking part in the planetary competition he has dreamed of lifting for many years. The sports daily assures that he did not understand the choice to send him off, Deschamps having called no additional player to compensate for his package. Something that might have calmed the spirits in this thorny Benzema file. While his departure would indeed have allowed the group to live better, according to the feelings of some Blues, KB9, sometimes doubtful in his communicationis still and always talked about.