A day after the World Cup final, Karim Benzema has announced his retirement as international, it seems. The attacker, now 35 years old, is calling it a day after his return to the French national team.
Benzema missed the World Cup in Qatar due to an injury, although according to French media he was not happy with the way national coach Didier Deschamps handled it. On Sunday, the Ballon d’Or winner was missing from the final despite an invitation from President Macron. We would never know how things would have panned out if Karim Banzema had started in the final. Especially ahead of Giroud who hardly touched the ball on Sunday. A day later, the Real Madrid striker has shown that he does not want to continue as an international.
“I did my best and made mistakes that got me where I am today and I’m proud of it,” Benzema wrote in a somewhat cryptic post on Twitter on Monday afternoon. “I’ve written my story and ours ends.” In addition, the 97-time international places a photo of himself in the shirt of the French national team.
It seems to mean the end of an eventful international career, which actually seemed to be over in 2015 when Benzema was not called up for years after the much-discussed sex tape affair with fellow international Mathieu Valbuena. Last year, however, national coach Didier Deschamps surprisingly brought the attacker back into the selection for the European Championship.
Benzema’s career at Les Bleus now seems to have come to an end. As a young attacker for Olympique Lyon, he made his debut in 2007 at the age of nineteen in a friendly game with Austria, in which he immediately scored. A year later he went to the 2008 European Championship. Benzema was also present at the 2012 European Championship and the 2014 World Cup. He scored 37 times in 97 international matches.
