A Ballon d’Or winner says goodbye!
Karim Benzema (35) has announced his retirement from the French national team. The Real Madrid forward tweeted: “I’ve made the progress and the mistakes that got me where I am today – and I’m proud of it! I wrote my story, and ours ends here.” He added a symbol of the French flag.
Benzema had missed the World Cup because he was injured for a long time before the tournament, injured in one of the last training sessions before the World Cup on the way to a possible comeback.
During the tournament he regenerated at his club Real Madrid, got back into training and would theoretically have been ready for the final. However, France coach Didier Deschamps refrained from an appointment in order not to endanger the team structure.
It doesn’t get any hotter! This video is football history
According to Spanish and French media reports, Benzema understood that he hadn’t felt part of the World Cup squad anyway. But the attacker was still annoyed when Deschamps reacted annoyed to corresponding inquiries, as if Benzema was nothing more than a disruptive factor.
The relationship between the two is considered at least tense.
However, it is unclear whether Deschamps will continue at all following the World Cup. The coach’s contract expires.
Benzema was not part of the Equipe Tricolore squad at the 2016 European Championships in his own country and at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, also as a result of his role in the blackmail scandal surrounding a sex video by ex-national team colleague Mathieu Valbuena (38).
Benzema made his debut for Les Bleus in 2007. In his career he played 97 international matches, scoring 37 goals. In 2021 he won the Nations League with France.