Karim Benzema has made the decision to leave international football after 97 appearances and 37 goals, including a disappointing World Cup campaign in which he was initially named to the squad but later left out due to thigh injury. He suggests that, the way he was treated by France manager Didier Deschamps was a terrible experience for him.
🚨🎖| Benzema is very upset by the treatment he has received from the French Federation since he got injured on November 19. @Santos_Relevo
— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) December 17, 2022
After serving a lengthy suspension imposed in 2015 for assisting in the blackmail of his teammate Mathieu Valbuena, Benzema was reinstated into Deschamps’ France national team during the 2021 Euros. However, Switzerland Knocked them out of the tournament in the Round of 16.
In the Didier Deschamps era, France have reached 3 major finals: EURO 2016, World Cup 2018 & World Cup 2022.
The only major tournaments as coach that Deschamps has not made the finals in were when Karim Benzema was in the squad: World Cup 2014 & EURO 2021. https://t.co/BWfgmUWid9
— Daniel van Buyten (@DanielVanBuytem) December 19, 2022
Benzema was in peak form after his recent Ballon d’Or success and had high expectations for a heroic World Cup campaign, but those desires were dashed before the competition even started, but he effortlessly gained the fitness quickly enough to be fit.
He reportedly participated in the workouts in Madrid and looked in good shape as the competition reached the knockout round.
Benzema uploaded a picture to Twitter with the caption “974”, which obviously refers to the stadium where France was set to play Poland in their round of 16 games.
974 🇷🇪 pic.twitter.com/lSRu7zxhMz
— Karim Benzema (@Benzema) November 29, 2022
The reality is that the France coach did not want to add him back to the team mostly upsets him.
Later, France’s President, Emmanuel Macron invited Karim to join him in the stands to witness the final, but the Real Madrid superstar declined.
Cause once you look at it , you know ! pic.twitter.com/5o9rYDqNin
— Karim Benzema (@Benzema) December 26, 2022
Deschamps miscalculated and in the end, lost in the final against Argentina where a fit Karim ‘Mercedes Benzema’ would have been formidable for France.
