The football player who rejected President Macron's offer: Who is Karim Benzema?
In the world cup in Qatar, France had high expectations from him, but he was unable to play due to an injury. Even though Macron wanted, he did not go to the final match.
It was alleged that French star Karim Benzema, who played in Real Madrid, one of the Spanish 1st Football League (La Liga) teams, refused the invitation from French President Emmanuel Macron to go to the 2022 FIFA World Cup final together.
According to the news that ESPN based on its own sources, there was an "airplane crisis" in France, which faced Argentina in the final.
Benzema, who has not been able to play due to his injury since the beginning of the tournament and is in France, received an offer from Macron to go to Doha, the capital of Qatar, with a presidential plane before the final match. Benzema, 34, did not accept this offer, as did former international players Laurent Blanc, Zinedine Zidane, and Michel Platini.
Paul Pogba, N'Golo Kante, Presnel Kimpembe and Christopher Nkunku, Alain Giresse, who played for the French National Team in the 1980s, and judo Olympic champion Teddy Riner joined the plane, which included Macron and his wife Brigitte. Lucas Hernandes was among the French national players who did not participate in the group.
Who is Karim Benzema?
Karim Mostafa Benzema (December 19, 1987, Lyon, France) is a French football player of Algerian descent. He plays for the Real Madrid team.
He started playing football in a regional team, Bron Terraillon, in the city of Lyon, where he was born and raised.
In 1996, he joined the youth club academy under the roof of Lyon, one of the biggest teams in the city. He made his professional debut in the 2004-05 season. He enjoyed the championship with his club for four years in a row. He was the top scorer of the French Ligue 1 in the 2007-2008 season.
In July 2009, he transferred to Real Madrid for 35 million euros. The player, who scored 18 goals in 58 games with this team, also became a star with 3 goals while beating Auxerre 4-0 in the UEFA Champions League group matches at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium on 8 December 2010.
Together with his team, he won the league championship in the 2011-12 and 2016-17 seasons, the Spanish Cup in 2011 and 2014, the Spanish Super Cup in 2012, the Champions League championship in 2014 and 2016, and the UEFA Super Cup in 2014.
On 10 August 2022, he scored his 324th goal for Real Madrid in the 2022 UEFA Super Cup they played against Eintracht Frankfurt and surpassed Raúl, the legend of the club, to become the 2nd most laker in Real Madrid history.
Despite being of Algerian descent, he chose France, the team of the country he was born in. Benzema played for the French national team in sub-categories such as France U-17, France U-18, France U-19, and France U21, and since 2007, he was selected for the France A National team.
NATIONAL TEAM
He played for the first time in 2007 with the French national team and took part in the European Football Championship in 2008 and 2012 and in the 2014 FIFA World Cup squads. Between 2007 and 2015, he scored 25 goals in 77 matches for the France national team. In all categories, he played for the France national team 112 times in total and managed to score 45 goals in these matches.
October 2022
Winning the 2022 Ballon d'Or, he was named European Footballer of the Year
Having won both La Liga, Champions League, UEFA Super Cup, and Spanish Super Cup in 2022, Benzema completed the season as the top scorer. The star football player sat at the top of the kingdom table with 15 goals in the Champions League. Karim Benzema won the Ballon d'Or for the first time in his career.