Yet, speaking to L’Equipe, Benzema made it clear that the notion of him turning down France is simply not true and insisted that football decisions should be governed by purpose rather than politics.
“I’m a football player. So, I play football. When they call me, I come, I play,” he said. “I have goals in my head. I love football and I love winning. I like trophies. That’s what matters most to me. There, I am in my club. If I am called to the national team, I come to play football. And it stops there.”
Despite everything that has happened, the idea of refusing a World Cup return holds no truth for him.
“It’s not a story of no longer wanting to come back to the French team,” he said. “But we have to ask ourselves the question: what am I coming to do with the French team? We are talking about a World Cup. Obviously, these are not things where you have to say: ‘No, I don’t want to.’ Because it’s a lie to say: ‘No, I don’t want to play in a World Cup’.”