The French forward of Real Madrid Karim Benzema left the door open to his retirement from the French team with an enigmatic message on Twitter published a day after France lost the World Cup final in Qatar against Argentina.
«I have made efforts and mistakes to get to where I have come and I am proud. I have written my story and ours ends, “says the player on a photo dressed in the national team.
The message leaves the door open to his international retirement after a stormy relationship with the national team, which ended with the injury that forced him to leave Qatar two days before France’s debut in the World Cup.
The entire French press has interpreted the message as ending the international career of a player who has never had a good relationship with the national team.
Since his departure from Doha on November 20, his name has been raised by the French concentration and the questions at a press conference to the coach, Didier Deschamps, have revealed the discomfort caused by his name.
The technician, who did not summon anyone in his place despite the fact that he could have done so, went from “without comment” to ensuring that he only deals with “those who are there, not those who are absent.”
The player, who traveled directly to Madrid from the Qatari capital and, after a few days of vacation on the island of La Reunion, began to exercise normally at his club’s facilities in Valdevebas, remained silent.
He limited himself to sending this Sunday a message of support for the French team through social networks.
Contact with Deschamps is broken and it seems that relations returned to the times of the cold war between the two, ending a period of improvement in the months before the World Cup.
L’Équipe assured this Saturday that the Ballon d’Or did not feel well treated by the coach, who did not give him time to recover, nor by the medical staff, who forced his return to the team too much after the problems he had in previous months to the Worldcup.
Benzema chose to stay in the French concentration to have a chance to heal his injury and be able to participate in a game. But the night he left the concentration he published a message in which he assured that he preferred to leave to leave his place to another colleague.
Deschamps did not call anyone and faced the competition with 25 players, a roster that fell to 24 when left-back Lucas Hernandez was injured during France’s first game against Australia and had to leave the national team. By then, he could no longer be replaced.
The footballer’s entourage believes that the message leaked from the national team that coexistence improved without him in the group, a theory that was denied by his Real Madrid teammate Aurelien Tchouaméni after France’s first game in the World Cup.
“With him, group life was very good and without him it is still the same,” said the player, who wanted to send that message even without the journalists asking him.
Since his international debut in March 2007 against Austria, Benzema has played 97 games, but his record has not included any major title with the national team.
The player missed the 2010 World Cup in South Africa by decision of the then coach Raymond Domenech and in Euro 2012 he did not exceed the round of 16 defeated by Spain with Laurent Blanc as coach.
Already with Deschamps on the bench, which made him one of his key men, even when the Frenchman accumulated worrying streaks of scoring drought, he started in the World Cup in Brazil, but France fell in the quarterfinals against Germany.
When he was preparing to face the 2016 Euro Cup, the scandal of the blackmailing accusation against his teammate Mathieu Valbuena broke out, which put an end to his good relationship with Deschamps.
The coach left him off the list so as not to cloud the coexistence of the group and the striker accused him of giving in to racist pressure from France.
Deschamps did not hide his anger, especially after his residence in the French Basque Country appeared with graffiti accusing him of racism. The player spent three and a half years out of the national team, which also left him out of the team that was proclaimed world champion in Russia in 2018.
The great seasons he had with Real Madrid led the coach to lift his veto in June 2021, just before the Euro Cup, in which the world champion fell in the round of 16 on penalties against Switzerland.
Benzema continued to form part of a team that dreamed of facing the defense of its title along with Kylian Mbappé and Antoine Griezmann, a trident that led the team to victory in the League of Nations.
Already with the Ballon d’Or in his possession, Benzema began the season with Real Madrid lukewarm with physical problems, although some claimed that he was reserving himself for the World Cup, the main goal of the season for him, as he confessed at the ceremony. award collection.
Saved from training during the weeks prior to the World Cup, he returned to group exercises two days before France’s debut against Australia and there he suffered a different injury, for which he left concentration.
Now, just after France lost in the final against Argentina and in the midst of rumors that point to his bad exit from the group, he points to the end of his international stage as the fifth all-time scorer with 37 goals, four after having equalized with Michel Platini.
EFE.
