On ESPN we summarize the problems of Benzema, who is a crack on the court, but also often creates controversy outside of it.
Last Saturday, against Atlético de Madrid, the Frenchman Karim Benzema achieved a mark that helps to express his relevance for football.
With 528 games in 12 seasons, he becomes the foreign player who most often wears the Real Madrid shirt. He surpassed nothing less than Roberto Carlos, legend of the Madrid club, who totals 527.
In these matches for the Merengues, he scored 257 goals and distributed 138 assists. He won four UEFA Champions Leagues, four Club World Cups, three European Super Cups, three LaLiga editions, two King’s Cup editions and three Spanish Super Cups.
Figures that only help to corroborate the idea that Benzema is perhaps the best French striker of his generation. But for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, won by France, he was not called up. Despite all of the above.
Because if it is true that he has the talent to score goals, it is also a fact that, almost to the same extent, he participates in public confusion. It includes some that, when analyzed calmly, make no sense.
Benzema sometimes doesn’t seem to know the size of his relevance. Recently, he was surrounded in a controversy with the young Brazilian Vinícius Jr., understood by the weight of gold in Flamengo and treated like a gem in the club, for example.
But that was a very slight controversy. Last Saturday, against Atletico Madrid, Frenchman Karim Benzema achieved a mark that helps express his relevance to football.
With 528 games in 12 seasons, he becomes the foreign player who wears the Real Madrid shirt the most times. He surpassed nothing less than Roberto Carlos, legend of the Madrid club, who totals 527.
In these matches for the meringues, he scored 257 goals and distributed 138 assists. He won four UEFA Champions Leagues, four Club World Cups, three European Super Cups, three LaLiga editions, two King’s Cup editions and three Spanish Super Cups.
Figures that only help to corroborate the idea that Benzema is perhaps the best French striker of his generation. But for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, won by France, he was not called up. Despite all of the above.
Because if it is true that he has the talent to score goals, it is also a fact that, almost to the same extent, he participates in public confusion. It includes some that, when analyzed calmly, make no sense.
Benzema sometimes doesn’t seem to know the size of his relevance. Recently, he was surrounded in a controversy with the young Brazilian Vinícius Jr., understood by the weight of gold in Flamengo and treated like a gem in the club, for example.
But this has been a minor controversy, compared to others:
The underage prostitute
In 2014, Benzema and Franck Ribery, at the time of Bayern Munich, now in Fiorentina, were arrested by French police for requesting the services of the prostitute Zahia Dehar, a minor, in the city of Paris , in 2008. He was 17 years old.
At that time, it was not yet a crime to pay for sex in France, as it came to be, under a law enacted in 2016. The minimum age for sex that is considered consensual in the country is 15 years. . However, in the case of a minor, any type of payment is illegal.
Benzema denied having sex with the girl. Ribery confirmed that he had sex with her, even paid for what he knew in Germany. But he said he did not know his age, which was confirmed by Zahia.
In 2014, the French court acquitted both of them for lack of evidence that they knew the girl’s age.
Traffic problems
Looking for other confusions, the traffic violations committed by Karim seem childish pranks. But the French police, as well as the Spanish, do not believe it. The player’s career sheet is extensive.
In 2009, a car crashed into a tree in the Spanish capital. That same year, he was involved in an accident involving his Porsche and a Lamborghini in France.
In 2011, he was fined in Ibiza for speeding in a race between his Porsche, a Ferrari and a Lamborghini.
And in 2013, along with other Real Madrid players, he was caught driving an Audi RS5 at 209 km / h on a road with a permitted limit of 110 km / h. That day, however, it can be said that Karim was not the worst in the class. A Porsche that was part of the class, unidentified by authorities, was captured by a mobile radar at 260 km / h.
Blackmail with Valbuena
The story, to this day, is poorly told. But what happened in the story at the time was that striker Mathieu Valbuena was expecting blackmail due to a sex tape (recording in which he appeared having sex with his girlfriend at the time). And that Benzema was helping blackmailers in the 2013 negotiation.
Following the reports of the time, one of the men who blackmailed Valbuena was a childhood friend of the Real Madrid striker. And Valbuena said Benzema had insistently suggested that he pay to retrieve the video.
It was per Valbuena’s report, realizing that he found the insistence of his teammate strange, which the police accused and even arrested Benzema in 2015.
In 2016, the defendant testified that Benzema had no connection to the problem, and that he was only trying to help Valbuena. But the damage was already done.
The scandal cost Benzema to participate in the French selection in the same year, which ended up causing that it did not return to be called by Didier Deschamps. And, thus, he did not win the 2018 World Cup.
It was in the year of the World Cup in Russia, by the way, that Valbuena goes where a white band to his former colleague, saying he was ready to shake hands if they met. Benzema responded with an Instagram post that decided to “Hold Your Hand.”
The case is not yet closed. In July this year, the Versailles tax office, south of Paris, again notified the player that he would be handling the investigation again.
Kart Vs. F-1
Included outside the national team for five years, Benzema remains a shadow for Chelsea’s Olivier Giroud, the French starter.
In March, when asked about Giroud’s quality compared to him, Benzema fired:
“I shouldn’t confuse an F1 car with a go-kart, and that’s me being kind. (Let’s go to) Next topic. I won’t talk about it anymore (Giroud). All I know is that I’m an F1,” he said. and then amendment:
“He has his career, he does what he wants and he scores the goals he wants. He’s in your corner and I’m not thinking about him. If we’re talking about style of play, he’s fine with France,” he said.
Asked about this, Giroud always shrugs and extols the quality of his ex-partner.
Vinicius Jr. playing against
Nervous with the individualism and poor performance of Vinicius Jr. in a Champions League match against Borussia Monchengladbach, Benzema called up French defender Mendy, on his way back from the break, and said:
“He doesn’t pass the ball to him. I swear by my mother, he’s playing against us,” the cameras captured the moment on Oct. 27 in the field access tunnel.
The case sparked controversy until, on October 29, the Frenchman called Vinicius to explain and apologize, according to the Marca newspaper.
The next day, at a press conference, coach Zidane confirmed the whole story: “It’s not the first time one player has talked about the other. That’s good, it shows we’re alive,” he said.
Vinicius also always puts warm cloths on the subject
He said in an interview with the same brand, on November 19, that what happened in the Monchengladbach tunnel was common, and that journalists did not understand some codes that exist among footballers. Also, whenever he can, he exalts how close and kind he is to Benzema.