Karim Benzema's desire to return to the French team jersey for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games is not necessarily well received by everyone.
The information was revealed late Tuesday evening. More than a year after announcing that he was drawing a line under his career in blue, Karim Benzema told the channel The Team that he would be ready in the event of a call from Thierry Henry. In other words, the 2022 Ballon d'Or said he was up for an exceptional career if the Espoirs coach were to call on him to participate in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Why not, of course. It could be great “, he told the media. But his enthusiasm is not shared by the entire public.
The sports channel hastened to put a survey online to ask viewers and Internet users to give their opinion on a possible return of Karim Benzema to the Blues for the Olympics. “ Karim Benzema at the Olympics, would you like that? » A direct question for a clear-cut result, since it was the “no” which won by 81%. On the set, the surprise was not total and the journalist, Régis Testelin, gave his point of view: “ It goes beyond his presumed current state of fitness, I think. It's a repellent, it's divisive. A problem between the French team and him has obviously been identified by quite a few people and it is reflected a little in this survey. »
“If he was at Real Madrid…”
For his part, his colleague Étienne Moatti extended the reasoning: “ He has always been divisive. So during the period when he became the best player in the world, it was a pleasure to see him return to the French team and as a result, his rating had become favorable again. But seeing how it ended, and it's true that Benzema's communication, we may not necessarily understand it well, in any case the general public did not understand. »
However, and leaving aside the aspect of the perception of extra-sporting facts, Régis Testelin wanted to refocus the debate on football. “ Afterwards, if he were Real Madrid's center forward today and he was in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, the numbers would be different. But he is no longer visible. And from the moment it is no longer visible and what's more, it is divisive, it produces this result. » The final choice will nevertheless fall to Thierry Henry.
