A few days before the start of the tournament, world footballer Karim Benzema has to announce his World Cup exit. An injury slows the French down. Now he wants to return to the team for the final. This feeds speculation about a possible comeback.
Will the World Cup in Qatar make a surprising, spectacular comeback on Sunday, just in time for the big highlight? According to information from the Spanish sports newspaper “El Mundo Deportivo”, France’s injured striker Karim Benzema would at least like to fly to Qatar for the World Cup final against Argentina on Sunday afternoon (4 p.m. / ARD, MagentaTV and in the ntv.de live ticker).
The 34-year-old already has permission from his Real Madrid club, the medium wrote. Does that mean more than a spectator role? France coach Didier Deschamps smiled away when asked about a possible appearance of the world footballer after the final against Morocco: “I don’t want to answer the question.”
Benzema suffered a muscle injury in training in Qatar shortly before the first World Cup match against Australia. He then left the French team’s headquarters and flew to Madrid for treatment and rehabilitation before continuing on vacation to the island of La Reunion.
But after his return, the striker quickly resumed training in Madrid, apparently without any health problems. Benzema played a training game against the second division team Leganés on Monday alongside Toni Kroos, David Alaba and the first squad of non-World Cup drivers from the royal team and was “in excellent shape”, as “As” writes.
In view of the outstanding offensive quality of the defending champion, a sporting comeback of the superstar is rather unlikely: With Marcus Thuram from Gladbach and Randal Kolo Muani from Eintracht Frankfurt, who made the decision in the semifinals 44 seconds after being substituted on, Deschamps only a few hours ago expressly praised his jokers from the Bundesliga. The first cast of the storm with a Kylian Mbappé in top form and Olivier Giroud, who can still secure the top scorer of the World Cup, is exquisite anyway. In addition, Benzema had had difficulties for a long time before his cancellation: he had missed Real Madrid’s last four league games before the World Cup break due to muscular problems.
Because coach Didier Deschamps, unlike after the injuries to Christopher Nkunku (RB Leipzig) or Presnel Kimpembe (Paris Saint-Germain), refrained from nominating a replacement for Benzema, Benzema is officially still part of the French World Cup squad and could start on Sunday in In the event of a final win against the Argentines, they would also be honored as world champions, even if they didn’t play. Defending champions France qualified for the final on Wednesday evening after beating Morocco 2-0 in the semi-finals. Benzema was absent from the French squad for the 2016 European Championship and the 2018 World Cup.