The coach of France stated that Benzema made the decision not to play in the World Cup. The forward responded strongly.
Didier Deschamps spoke for the first time about Karim Benzema's hasty departure from Les Bleus before the 2022 World Cup, in an interview published in Le Parisien, explaining that the injured forward "had told him that he wouldn't be ready" for the continuation of the tournament, a version that has been ironically contested by the player on Instagram.
Injured in a thigh, the 2022 Ballon d'Or winner had to give up on the Qatar World Cup three days before the French national team's first match against Australia and hastily left the team's hotel in Doha. But he finally resumed training with his club on December 10, four days before the semifinals against Morocco.
"Karim himself told me that he wouldn't be ready", stated the coach of Les Bleus to the newspaper.
"When Karim got injured, our doctor accompanied him to the Aspetar clinic for an MRI", Deschamps recounted.
"Karim transmitted the results to someone who follows him in Madrid, who also gave his point of view. When he returned to the hotel, it was already past midnight. I went to Karim's room with our doctor, who had come to inform me about the MRI (...) Karim was devastated as this World Cup meant a lot to him. He told me: It's dead", added the coach.
"We talked for about twenty minutes. As I was leaving, I told him: Karim, there's no rush. Organize your return with the team manager. When I woke up, I received the news that he had left. It was his decision, he will not say otherwise, I understand and respect it", explained the coach.
Player's response
These statements by Didier Deschamps were received with irony by Benzema (35 years old, 97 international matches, 37 goals), who recently announced his retirement from the national team.
On Instagram, the Real Madrid forward posted a screenshot that includes Deschamps' statements, to which he adds the phrase: "But what audacity!", with a clown emoji.
In that response, the video of a French 'snapchatter', Ritchie, repeating the phrase "menteur, toi t'es un menteur" (liar, you're a liar) also appears. Above that excerpt, the attacker writes: "Blessed Didier... Goodnight".
This episode between Deschamps and Benzema is just another chapter in the troubled relationship between the two men and the one the player has had with the French national team.
Benzema, who has only won one competition with Les Bleus (Nations League in 2021), was excluded from the team between 2015 and 2021 due to his involvement in the blackmail case against his teammate in the national team, Mathieu Valbuena, which earned him a one-year suspended prison sentence and a €75,000 fine (about $80,000).
After not being selected for the Euro 2016, the player replied in the Spanish sports newspaper Marca stating that "Deschamps succumbed to the pressure of a racist part of France".
After leaving Qatar shortly before the 2022 World Cup, he alternated messages of encouragement for his teammates with other more enigmatic ones like the one he posted on Instagram before the Argentina-France final, where he wrote: "I'm not interested". He then announced the end of his international career on December 19, 2022, one day after the World Cup final. AFP