Karim Benzema was probably not totally wrong to mention just after his exclusion from the list for the Euro, a “racist part of France“, in 2016.
Admittedly, no one can still today accuses the coach Didier Deschamps of having dismissed him for such considerations, as the player had supported, but this ” racist part of France ” is not a view of the mind.
He proved it again with the return of the Real Madrid striker to the Blues, after almost six years of absence. That said, his return, announced Tuesday evening on the occasion of the disclosure of Deschamps’ list for the Euro (June 11 – July 11), is greeted by a large part of the French, President Emmanuel Macron in the lead.
Benzema has not been summoned to the France team since October 2015 the day after the outbreak of the so-called sex-tape affair, blackmail to which his teammate Mathieu Valbuena had been the victim.
Since then, much has been said about this affair in which even the politicians got involved. The origins of the player and his “attachment” to the France team and even to France itself have always been at the center of the debate.
At the time, French political power was given a decisive role in the exclusion of the Franco-Algerian attacker.
What former President François Hollande denied last March. “ Benzema is a very great football player, look at what he does at Real. I do not go into this story. Either way, the procedure is not over. What I have to say is that Benzema is a very great football player. Political pressures? In any way, not more than the Minister of Sports or Manuel Valls at the time. No one made this intervention. And it is Deschamps who chose other players, who chose not to retain Benzema, not simply on sporting criteria, it’s true,” revealed the former head of state.
But the then Prime Minister Manuel Valls had made unequivocal comments about the player. Public comments that he cannot deny.
“So many young people identify with great athletes. If it is not, it has no place in the France team … When you assume responsibilities and embody the France team, you have to be exemplary”, he judged.
What Benzema had replied, figures to support, on Twitter: ” 12 seasons that I am a professional: 541 games played 0 red cards 11 yellow cards !!! And some speak of my exemplary nature ??? “
After six years of controversy, therefore, the player is again summoned to the Blues, thanks to an excellent season achieved with Real Madrid from which he inherited the keys to the attack since the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo to Juventus in 2018.
” He’s a guy who refuses to sing the Marseillaise “
Last Tuesday, Deschamps passed the sponge and included it in his list for the Euro. “ So proud of this return to the France team and of the trust placed in me. Thank you to my family, my friends, my club, to you… and to all those who have always supported me”, posted the player immediately after on Instagram.
Many in France have welcomed this return, in the world of sport but also in politics. President Emmanuel Macron, for example, has a strong opinion on the issue.
For him, Deschamps took “ the best possible team.” Asked if the return of Benzema is an additional chance for the Blues, he answers bluntly: “ I am convinced of it. If this is the choice of the coach, it is because he is convinced of it too. Both for his quality as a player, the maturity he has acquired, and his ability to fit into this collective.”
The opinion of the President of the Republic is widely shared in France, but not by everyone.
Raymond Domenech, former coach of the Blues, finds the timing awkward and explains that the return of Benzema can embarrass other players.
“ We have to weigh the pros and cons. The cons, it is precisely that now, everything is focused on Karim, on Benzema, and that all of a sudden, the others around feel a little extinct, that they no longer really know where their place is because there, we are only going to talk for two weeks about Karim”, he said.
If Domenech advances a purely sporting argument to cast doubts as to the advisability of taking over Benzema, other personalities, known for their racist speech, unearth old declarations of Benzema or which have been falsely attributed to him to question his patriotism.
” When Karim Benzema in 2006 told us that his country is Algeria, that he would have gladly played in Algeria but that sportingly – understand for a matter of money – he prefers to play in France, when he is not singing La Marseillaise, when he spits on the ground after La Marseillaise played in honor of the dead of the Bataclan, these things shock me,” reacted Jean Messiha, a former member of the National Rally (far right), columnist for Cnews.
Or Stéphane Ravier, senator from Marine Le Pen’s party: ” I remember his statements: I am French for football, but I am Algerian by heart “.
Eric Zemmour, the polemicist known for his extremist anti-immigration positions, could not miss such a debate.
“ I am not discussing his inherent talent. But when this guy, who is Franco-Algerian, explains why he chose to play for the France team and says ‘you know, my country is Algeria, France is only for sport’ … All is said. He’s a guy who refuses to sing the Marseillaise because he says it’s a war song. We had not noticed that the Algerian anthem was very peaceful, in particular vis-à-vis France, ”said the columnist of CNews.
