The 2026 World Cup has players around the world salivating. And even the big stars at the end of their careers, who no longer have anything to prove. This Thursday, in an interview with L’Équipe, Karim Benzema raised the possibility of playing this World Cup with the France team this summer. And the Al-Ittihad attacker does not close the door.
“Who doesn’t want to play in the World Cup? Everyone wants to play in this competition, he said. Afterwards, tell yourself: can I be taken on… As I am someone who loves football and competition, obviously, if you tell me to go to the French team to play in a World Cup and I tell you no, I am a liar. »
“I like football and I like to win”
At 37, Karim Benzema has not worn the Blues jersey since a Nations League match against Croatia on June 13, 2022 and he announced his international retirement on December 19 of the same year the day after the Blues’ defeat against Argentina in the World Cup final. The end of a tumultuous history with the French team, marked in particular by a very long break between 2015 and 2021 following the sex tape affair which only allowed him to compete in the 2014 edition. Not enough to leave him with a taste of unfinished business.
“I did what I did. I tried, I was there. It didn’t happen, it’s like that, he said. I didn’t play in the national team for six years, I came back, I won the Nations League in 2021. We went to the Euro, I shone but we were eliminated (in the round of 16). That’s life. So unfinished, I disagree. That’s not how I see my time in the French team. »
This World Cup could, however, give another twist to his epic in Blue. “Me, I’m a football player. So, I play football. When I am called, I come, I play, said Karim Benzema. I have goals in my head. I love football and I love winning. I like trophies. That’s what matters most to me. There, I am in my club. If I am called to the national team, I come to play football. And it stops there. »
A rather improbable reminder
In a very competitive gaming sector with Kylian Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé as leading figures, his recall for the 2026 World Cup (June 11 – July 19) however seems very unlikely, even if the future should never be insulted. The trajectory of his club partner N’Golo Kanté, selected for Euro 2024 after almost two years of absence, shows that as long as a player remains selectable, no door is truly double-locked. In the event of an offensive massacre, the cards could then be redistributed.
We remember that his hasty departure from Qatar, due to a muscle injury, had nevertheless caused a lot of ink to flow. The striker’s resumption of training with Real Madrid in mid-December had cast doubt on the real seriousness of his injury. An ambiguity that the player had not dissipated, responding in particular with a scathing “what audacity” on social networks after Didier Deschamps explained this package in an interview in March 2023 in our newspaper.
“I am not here to talk about these things,” assured Benzema in a speech of appeasement. And I’m not here to go over that again… That’s it, it’s over. Are we going to talk about this story for thirty years? I’m not here to further fuel the controversy. It’s in the past for me. We move on. » Including act.
