The latest recipient of the Ballon d’Or, Real Madrid and France striker Karim Benzema has every reason to be enjoying playing at the 2022 Qatar World Cup with all the doe-eyed enthusiasm of a rookie.
While the Lyon-born 34-year-old has won an incredible 23 domestic, European and world titles in a glorious 13-season stint with Real Madrid, his national team career has offered comparatively few highs. In the first three major international tournaments he played in (Euro 2008, Euro 2012 and World Cup 2014), he sparkled only intermittently and for six long years (2015-2021), the powers-that-be at the Gallic federation declared him persona non grata.
Barred from the national team for his alleged role in a sex-tape blackmail affair, Benzema should have been an automatic choice to spearhead his nation’s Russia 2018 campaign. As the best French striker of his generation and a proven marksman for global heavyweights Real Madrid, his presence in Russia would have arguably rendered Les Bleus even more formidable.
What a waste, then, that KB9 had to make other plans for the summer of 2018, jetting off to holiday in the Miami sunshine. What a squandering of talent and high-end experience; he had just won his fourth Champions League with Real and had finished the 2017-18 campaign with five goals in that competition, including his side’s opener in the 3-1 victory over Liverpool in the final.
After saw off Croatia to clinch their second world title magazine, he explained how he had dealt with the setback: “I tell myself that it was meant to be. Regrets? Yes, I did have some at the time because, you know, it might have been me. But on the whole, I don’t have regrets, no. I play for Real Madrid and I’ve won everything. That masks the disappointment.”
