Ex-French international Benzema clearly disagrees with Didier Deschamps’s reading about his withdrawal from the French national team. The national coach of France said on Friday evening that Benzema could have taken action at the World Cup as far as he is concerned, the reaction of the Real Madrid striker tells a different story.
Benzema had to miss the World Cup in Qatar at the end of last year after he was injured just before France’s first group match. The 35-year-old striker left the national team’s training camp and never returned. According to French media, Benzema himself would have liked to stay with the group, because he was convinced that he could still have his share during the tournament. However, Deschamps sent him home, L’Equipe wrote at the time.
A few months later, Deschamps first responded to the issue. According to the national coach, it was Benzema himself who decided to leave in a hurry. “We sat together for twenty minutes after the injury news, after which I left him alone. I told him that there was no rush. And that he could organize his return to the team with the team manager. When I woke up the next day, I understood that he had left,” the French manager revealed.
Benzema’s reaction
Deschamps added that Benzema could confirm the story, but that appears not to be the case. A few hours after the national coach had told his story to Le Parisien. The attacker responded via two posts on Instagram. “What guts,” reads the first message, with the clown emoji. The second post is a video of a man saying, “Liar, what a liar. Saint Didier,” Benzema adds.
For example, a new chapter has been added to the difficult relationship between Deschamps and Benzema, who was not called up for France under the national coach for years after he was involved in the infamous sex tape affair with fellow international Mathieu Valbuena. Towards the European Championship 2020, Deschamps brought the Real Madrid attacker back into his selection, but that return to Les Bleus was ultimately short-lived. After the World Cup, Benzema retired as an international.
