On May 18, 2021, Le Parisien revealed information expected by millions of people in France: Karim Benzema is making his return to the France team. 2,049 days after his last match in the tricolor jersey, the unloved then, to everyone’s surprise, made his comeback in Didier Deschamps’ squad for Euro 2021. Since then, water has flowed under the bridges between the man who will become Ballon d’or seventeen months later and the coach of the Blues.
But the French public will still have been able to benefit, during 16 selections and a major competition, from all the talent of the former Real Madrid striker. His four goals during the European Championship, his newfound understanding with his attacking colleagues, his first steps with Kylian Mbappé… Everything led to believe that the reconciliation between Karim Benzema and Didier Deschamps would be part of a common desire for success in blue. Before it all comes crashing down one winter evening in 2022.
Arriving in Qatar in a state of form considered fragile for the French gathering on the sidelines of the World Cup, Karim Benzema trains alone and sees his return to collective sessions delayed. Victim of an injury when he returned to the group, even before the start of the competition, he was sent to the Aspetar clinic in Doha to carry out examinations which later revealed a tear in his left thigh. The beginning of the end for the Lyonnais.
A sneaky departure
“At best, his return to training could not take place before December 10 (day of the England-France quarter-final). (…) As I left him I said to him: Karim, there is no emergency. You organize your return with the team manager. When I wake up, I learn that he is gone. It’s his decision, he won’t tell you otherwise, I understand it and respect it,” said Didier Deschamps in an interview with Parisian on March 2023.
A version that the main person concerned never wished to confirm, and which was even the subject of a defamation trial between the coach and Daniel Riolo last month. On January 4, 2023, the journalist, live on RMC Sport, qualified Didier Deschamps as a “liar”, claiming to have “the real story” about the seriousness of the physical problem encountered by Benzema. The judgment will be rendered on January 30, 2026.
The striker, who now plays for Al-Ittihad (Saudi Arabia), was able to play again in a friendly match with Real Madrid even before the end of the Mondial des Bleus.
He then bitterly announced his international retirement the day after the final lost by the Blues on penalties against Argentina. “I made the efforts and the mistakes it took to be where I am today and I’m proud of it! I wrote my story and ours ends,” he wrote on December 19 on social networks.
Almost three years after this painful breakup, Karim Benzema made what amounts to a knee-jerk call six months before the World Cup in an interview given to L’Équipe this Thursday. Should coach Didier Deschamps want to give him a third and final chance before giving up his place on the bench of the France team?
