Karim Benzema appears to have announced his retirement from international football in an Instagram post. Alongside a picture of him in a France kit, the Real Madrid striker posted, “I made the effort and mistakes it took to be where I am today and I’m proud of it! I wrote my story and ours ends.”
Benzema’s international career is the ultimate enigma. The finest French forward of this generation, the 35-year-old has ascended to become the second-highest goalscorer in Real Madrid history. He has amassed 97 caps for his country, scoring 37 goals. He scored in the 2021 Nations League final as Les Bleus defeated Spain 2-1.
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Yet, Benzema’s country has played in two World Cup finals without him. One of the finest forwards France has ever produced was not a part of either the 2018 World Cup triumph nor their near-miss last Sunday. It is hard to truly quantify Benzema’s place in the history of his national side.
His club legacy is clearer. For much of his Real Madrid tenure, Benzema had to labour in the shadow of Cristiano Ronaldo. When you’re riding shotgun with arguably the second-greatest player of all-time, it is hard to stand out. And yet, Benzema broke the 20-goal barrier most seasons and got to 30 in the 2011-12 campaign.
But it was after Ronaldo’s 2018 departure for Juventus that Benzema took on the role he was born to play. The former Lyon striker became the talisman at the Bernabeu. Last season saw him reach his personal peak, bagging 44 goals in 46 games as his side won La Liga and the Champions League. Benzema’s efforts netted him the 2022 Ballon d’Or, making him just the second player to break the Lionel Messi-Cristiano Ronaldo duopoly over that honour since 2008.
Benzema’s place in Real history is secure, but his place in the annals of French football is a little more vaporous. This isn’t a case of a renowned player flopping on the international stage. Benzema is fifth on the list of France’s all-time top scorers. But his absence from the World Cup triumph in 2018 and the instant classic final of 2022, in which his compatriots will be lionised even in defeat, harms his standing.
What would we be saying about Benzema had his accusations of racism against manager Didier Deschamps not denied him six years of international football? Benzema said that his manager’s decision to omit him from the squad for Euro 2016 was made on racist grounds. He would not play an international game between 2015 and 2021.
Deschamps relented and Benzema returned, but what could he have achieved in that hinterland of lost time? On pure football grounds, Benzema would almost certainly have been in the 2018 squad. How different would Benzema’s international legacy look with a World Cup on his CV? Would the individual acclaim that has arrived in his mid-30s have been bestowed sooner?
Benzema would likely have picked up the France all-time scoring record too, considering the fact that current leader Olivier Giroud was afforded so many opportunities in his absence.
In many ways, Benzema shares a lot in common with Eric Cantona. The former Manchester United forward endured many running battles with the French Football Federation. After being in and out of the team during various regimes, he never played another international game after kicking a fan at Selhurst Park in a United game against Crystal Palace. Like with Benzema, France went on to achieve unbelievable things without him. Les Bleus won the World Cup in 1998 with Cantona’s replacement, Zinedine Zidane, the undisputed star.
Cantona is thought of as a United legend rather than a French one. The same fate seems likely to befall Benzema at the close of his international career. The 35-year-old is set to be remembered most for what he did in white. He had some wonderful moments in the famous blue too, but not when it mattered most. Circumstances robbed him of two World Cup finals, one through disharmony and then in 2022 through injury. Benzema is doomed to be one of the greatest French strikers of all time, but not one of the greatest France strikers.
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