The French team is preparing for the World Cup final tonight (Sunday, 17:00) against Argentina. The tricolors want to win a second World Cup in a row, but have already guaranteed a medal at the end of the match – a gold medal, if they win the World Cup, or a silver medal.
All players who are considered part of the squad are entitled to a medal, so Karim Benzema, who did not play a single minute in the tournament due to injury, will also receive one. According to several reports, Benzema is fully fit and “suspended” from the squad due to tensions between him and the other players and a complete rift between him and coach Didier Deschamps.
According to “L’Equip”, Benzema cut contact with all members of the team’s professional staff, after wanting to stay in the tricolor camp despite the injury to see how his condition would develop, but Deschamps and the team doctor decided that he would fly back to his home in Madrid.
On the other hand, it was recently claimed that the coach of the world champion himself was offended that Benzema did not mention him in the Ballon d’Or winning speech, and since then their relationship has deteriorated. As a result, Benzema rejected the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron and will not make it to the final. Other players, such as Angolo Kante and Paul Pogba, will come with the president. Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, the president of FIFA and the former president of UEFA who were embroiled in corruption scandals, will also not reach the final itself.
According to the journalist Alfredo Relanio from AS, “Benzema is expelled from the national team because he did something unforgivable. They are still angry with him in the national team after the Mathieu Valbuena recording incident.” As you remember, Benzema was not part of the squad in the national team in 2018 after he was allegedly involved in the blackmail case of Mathieu Valbaona. Benzema, the recent Ballon d’Or winner, was part of the Euro 2020 squad.
Madina claimed that Benzema had difficulty reacclimating to the national team and did not say goodbye to his teammates before flying back to Spain, but now he was training with Real Madrid. The difficult relationship between him and the coach, by the way, could affect his summons to the next qualifying games and Euro 2024 in which Deschamps will continue.
If Deschamps leaves, then the leading candidate is Zinedine Zidane who, as I recall, coached Benzema at Real Madrid. Zizou himself, by the way, refused to come as a guest to the World Cup final, even though he was invited by the French federation.
Didier Deschamps himself said that he does not care about the injured players who reach the World Cup final alongside Macron and that they will not be part of the French team, while Benzema responded in a story saying that “I don’t care”.