Ballon d’Or at the height of his career, Karim Benzema said goodbye to his last dream, the Qatar-2022 World Cup, due to injury, a new disappointment in his stormy history with Les Bleus.
Source: AFP
At 34 years old, the striker arrived in Qatar full of hope, on a unique occasion for reconcile definitively with the selection tricolor.
but one thigh injury this Saturday in trainingended the hopes of the player born in Lyon, Low for the 2022 World Cup.
Will the Real Madrid striker have the chance to lift another international trophy? Even Euro-2024 seems far away for the ‘9’, who will turn 35 on December 19. As for the World-2026, seems unattainable, 12 years after his only World Cup played, in 2014.
Also read: Benzema, out of the World Cup
The misfortune is immense for this center forward, at the moment when France began to idolize him after having been disowned for a long time for his bad boy image and his involvement in the “sextape case”his darkest memory.
The emotion aroused by his Golden Ballon October 17 in Paris, the first French winner since Zinedine Zidane in 1998It sounded like a collective pardon. His loss in the World Cup, a month later, leaves a great void among his most loyal fans.
?? | Karim Benzema, current Ballon d’Or, on his World Cup record:
?? South Africa 2010: Not called.
?? Brazil 2014: Attended.
?? Russia 2018: Sanctioned.
?? Qatar 2022: Low due to injury. pic.twitter.com/63ZbRgt9kK– Alert News 24 (@AlertaNews24) November 19, 2022
– Love and hate –
Karim Benzema’s 2021-2022 season was wonderful: with 44 goals in 46 games at his club, the center forward led the real Madrid Towards his 35th league title and was one of the heroes of his 14th Champions League.
And if that weren’t enough, the international with 97 caps for France and 37 goals also won a title with Les Bleus, the League of Nationsin October 2021.
But the calendar of the French team was not at the same pace as Benzema’s career: when he was called up before the general surprise to play the Eurocup-2021 after five and a half years awaythe Bleus disappointed by falling in the round of 16 on penalties against Switzerland.
Know more: The ‘curse of the champion’, an extra challenge for France
And now Benzema had come to clean up his image, which had been marred for a long time by the case of the ‘sextape’.
In that dossier, the player decided in June to give up appealing in the process that opposes him to Mathieu Valbuena, assuming his suspended one-year prison sentence for “complicity in attempted blackmail.”
Despite a polished technique, an altruistic style of play and an exceptional track record, Benzema has struggled for years against an image shaped by his collection of sports cars, his luxury clothing and his companies.
– “The best” striker, according to Zidane –
In October 2015, his arrest caused a stir. He was separated from Les Bleus for more than five years, unleashing different opinions in France, divided between the love of his followers and the hatred that a part of the political spectrum professes him, in particular the extreme right.
Your statements about Didier Deschampswho according to him would have “yielded to pressure from a racist part of France”, would persecute the coach for a long time, who was inflexible until May 2021.
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But Benzema made up for it with an irreproachable attitude on the pitch, agreeing to put himself at the service of Cristiano Ronaldo for about 10 years at Real Madrid.
The march of the Portuguese in 2018 unleashed the football of Benzema: He became captain, was twice the best player in the League, in 2020 and 2022, and now has five Champions League titles to his credit.
“For me is the best”French center forward in history, estimated last season his former coach Zidane.
The figures speak in favor of Benzema: since March 2022 he is the French top scorer in history with more than 400 goals registered as a professional, in front of Thierry Henry.
But his tour with the Bleus retains an aftertaste of incomplete.
