{"id":627479,"date":"2025-12-12T02:44:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T02:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/627479\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T02:44:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T02:44:12","slug":"karim-benzema-delivers-bold-take-on-potential-france-return-ahead-of-the-2026-world-cup-id-be-lying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/627479\/","title":{"rendered":"Karim Benzema delivers bold take on potential France return ahead of the 2026 World Cup: \u2018I\u2019d be lying\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Karim Benzema<\/strong><\/a> has built a legacy as one of the most important players in Real Madrid\u2019s history. As a key part of that attacking trio with Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo, the Frenchman became the second highest scorer in the team\u2019s history, winning a Ballon d\u2019Or to leave a legendary legacy. However, he has been absent from the national team for three years<\/strong>, but gave a bold response when asked about a possible return to play in the 2026 World Cup<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWho wouldn\u2019t want to play in a World Cup? Everyone wants to be part of that tournament<\/strong>\u2026 So if you tell me I could go with France<\/a> to play a World Cup and I say no, I\u2019d be lying\u2026When I get called, I show up and I play. I have my own goals in mind. I love the game and I love winning. I love trophies \u2014 that\u2019s what matters most to me. Right now, I\u2019m focused on my club. If the national team calls me up, I\u2019ll go and play. For me, it\u2019s as simple as that<\/strong>,\u201d Karim Benzema said, via L\u2019Equipe.<\/p>\n

After having several off-the-field problems with Mathieu Valbuena, Karim was removed from France for six years<\/strong>, missing the victory in the 2018 World Cup. During this time, coach Didier Deschamps limited himself to saying: \u201cI make decisions based on what I consider to be for the good of the national team,\u201d he said, as reported by ESPN. However, Benzema returned to the call-ups in June 2021, but he did not last long.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In his short return, Benzema managed to play 17 matches and then decided to announce his retirement from the national team in 2022 after being left out of the 2022 World Cup due to a muscle tear. By staying in top shape with Al Ittihad, the veteran keeps alive the possibility of returning to play in the 2026 edition<\/strong>, but he remains absent from Didier Deschamps\u2019 call-ups,<\/strong> while Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 and Marcus Thuram\u2019s emergence makes his return difficult.<\/p>\n

\"\" Karim Benzema of France celebrates after scoring during the UEFA Euro 2020. Benzema managed to leave a solid legacy in France <\/p>\n

Karim Benzema<\/strong> did not manage to leave a legacy as historic in France as the one he left at Real Madrid, but he did manage to leave a solid legacy. After playing 97 matches, he managed to score 37 goals, which makes him the sixth-highest scorer in the history of the national team.<\/strong> In addition, he managed to be his team\u2019s top scorer in the 2014 World Cup, scoring 3 goals and providing two assists in five matches.<\/p>\n

While Olivier Giroud holds the title of France\u2019s all-time top scorer with 57 goals in 137 matches<\/strong>, questions linger about whether Karim Benzema might have claimed that spot had he played the same number of matches<\/strong>. The current Al Ittihad star appeared in 40 fewer games and was absent during the peak years of his career\u2014a period when he won the Ballon d\u2019Or and dominated as a prolific scorer at Real Madrid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Karim Benzema has built a legacy as one of the most important players in Real Madrid\u2019s history. As…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36,16030,1514],"class_list":{"0":"post-627479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france","11":"tag-karim-benzema","12":"tag-world-cup"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115704303910386259","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}