Karim Benzema announced his retirement from the French national team after not playing any matches in the 2022 World Cup Qatar. The 35-year-old forward, and current Ballon d'Or winner, says goodbye to Les Bleus with 37 goals in 97 matches and having only participated in one World Cup, the 2014 edition in Brazil, in which the Europeans advanced to the quarterfinals and 'Gato' scored three goals. This was announced by the current Real Madrid player through his social networks.
"I made the effort and the mistakes required to be where I am today. I am proud of it. I wrote my story and ours ends," expressed the French '9'.
How many goals did Benzema score in 2022?
So far, 'Gato' has only scored six goals with Real Madrid in 12 games this 2022-23 season.
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Deschamps on Benzema's absence
Didier Deschamps held a press conference in which he spoke about the possible presence of Karim Benzema before the final against Argentina. "Do foreign journalists pass rumors to ask about him? If I don't answer, you will say I'm angry. I have players who got injured before. Karim is one of them. The last one to get injured was Lucas Hernández. Since then, I have 24 players to manage. Raising the question about these players is, at least, a little clumsy," he began.
"The group is here. I'm not worried about invitations from players, former players, or injured players. We had a group at the beginning and, because of what happened, we lost three of them, with Nkunku at the beginning. They were part of the start of the adventure. Tomorrow we will be 24," he added.
Benzema refused to be in the final against Argentina
The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, decided to take a delegation to Qatar consisting of some 2018 World Cup champions —Presnel Kimpembe, Paul Pogba, and N'Golo Kanté—, referee Stéphanie Frappart, and judoka Teddy Riner; however, it was striking that the Real Madrid striker was not among the travelers, despite being invited.
"Neither Laurent Blanc nor Michel Platini nor Karim Benzema, invited, will be part of this delegation (...). The presidential plane is scheduled to take off on Saturday afternoon. The guests will spend the night in Qatar before attending the final," revealed Le Parisien.