It was almost in another time. Kylian Mbappé was 15 years old and was only an unknown hope in Monaco. Patrice Evra, Yohan Cabaye and Mathieu Valbuena were still boards of the French team that was already preparing for Euro 2016 in France. We are on October 8, 2015 and that evening, France faces Armenia in a friendly in Nice.
At the time of the kickoff, the public on the Riviera reserves a rather lukewarm welcome to the striker of the Blues: Karim Benzema. In front of 30,000 spectators, the striker of Real honors his 81st selection, but he has not scored for 6 games and it begins to growl. We do not forgive an attacker who doubts. At kick-off, no one yet knows that this innocuous match will be Karim Benzema’s last for the Blues for a long, long time.
Faced with very modest Armenians, Benzema is quickly dazzling and he turns the audience of the Allianz Riviera like a pancake. Aligned in a 4-3-3 peak with Valbuena and Antoine Griezmann by his side, the former Lyonnais begins his evening by distributing a caviar to the future world champion who is still playing at Atlético (35th). In a sluggish match, Cabaye doubled the stake just after half-time (55th) without the help of the Madrilenian who took care of the last two goals of the evening on his own, all in one minute. He first deflects (78th) with a head a corner shot by Griezmann then a few seconds later, scores after a flick from Anthony Martial. It was then the 27th goal in Blue for Karim Benzema.
He doesn’t have time to spice up his personal bill a little more. Ten minutes before the end, hit in the thigh, Benzema leaves and leaves his place to Olivier Giroud. He comes out to ovations, like what an audience can be versatile: “ I try to give everything on the pitch and show that I want to come to the France team, because to say the opposite is a lie. I want to win titles with this team. “Euro 2016, a few months later, will however be without him. The 2018 World Cup too.
Less than a week after this match against Armenia, the sextape affair broke out. Benzema is suspected of having incited Mathieu Valbuena, his ex-teammate in the France team, to pay blackmailers who threatened to unveil an intimate video featuring him. A sad case for which he will be judged from October 20 to 22 in Versailles in correctional for “complicity in attempted blackmail”.
