Tuesday, May 18, 2021
Five years after the sextape scandal
France pardons star striker Benzema
Karim Benzema’s career in the French national soccer team ended with a bang. In 2015, the Real Madrid striker was sorted out for complicity in a blackmail scandal. Now the 33-year-old is the big surprise among Germany’s group opponents.
Striker Karim Benzema returns to the French national soccer team after five and a half years. The 33-year-old from Real Madrid was called up by coach Didier Deschamps in the preliminary roster of the world champion for the European championship in the summer (June 11 to July 11), the 26-man squad was announced on Tuesday evening.
Benzema has not been part of the Equipe Tricolore since a blackmail scandal over a sextape in October 2015, at the pan-European EM he is now supposed to score goals alongside superstar Kylian Mbappé (Paris St. Germain) and Antoine Griezmann (FC Barcelona). From the Bundesliga, the Bayern quartet Lucas Hernandez, Benjamin Pavard, Corentin Tolisso and Kingsley Coman are in the squad, including Marcus Thuram from Borussia Mönchengladbach. On the other hand, Dayot Upamecano is missing, who will switch from RB Leipzig to FC Bayern in the summer.
“Met and discussed in detail”
A return of Benzema seemed extremely unlikely for years, because the legal processing is not yet completed: Benzema will have to answer to the court next autumn, the trial is to take place in October. It is about complicity in an attempt at extortion. The 81-time international is said to have urged former teammate Mathieu Valbuena to pay third parties who threatened to publish an intimate video.
After not being considered for the 2016 European Championship, he also publicly complained that coach Deschamps had “bowed to the pressure of a racist part of France”. Before the 2018 World Cup, Benzema said he would have no chance of returning under this coach.
Deschamps now emphasized that the interests of the national team are “above everything”. In order to “arrive at this decision”, “a few steps” were necessary: ”We met and discussed in detail.” Benzema has scored 27 goals in 81 international matches so far and has scored 29 times for Real Madrid this season alone. France will play against Germany at the start of the European Championship on June 15 in Munich, other opponents in Group F are Hungary and defending champions Portugal.
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