French team: why a return of Karim Benzema remains very unlikely

If this isn’t an application form, it looks a lot like one. In an interview with L’Équipe, Karim Benzema (37 years old, 97 caps) opened the door to a return to the French team to compete in the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada (from June 11 to July 19).

Raised several times about the Blues, whom he has not joined since his thigh injury before the World Cup in Qatar, the 2022 Golden Ball, who until now seemed to have drawn a line under his international career, then responded: “But who doesn’t want to play in the World Cup? Everyone wants to play this competition. Afterwards, tell yourself: can I be taken on… As I am someone who loves football and competition, obviously, if you tell me to go to the French team to play in a World Cup and I tell you no, I am a liar. »

Enough to ignite the web with a comeback of the former Real Madrid scorer in Didier Deschamps’ squad who had already called him up for the first time for Euro 2021… 2,049 days after his last match in the French jersey!

Unless there is a massacre…

The situation still seems very different. On the one hand, because the staff chose to entrust the axis and the armband to Kylian Mbappé, that “KB9” now plays in Saudi Arabia, at Al-Ittihad, where the degree of competitiveness is not as high as in Europe. Above all, the page seems well and truly turned for a long time for the coach who has no intention of turning back.

In these conditions, a return is therefore difficult to envisage. It’s simple, unless a massacre is always possible given the overloaded calendars, it is hypothetical to imagine Benzema joining the list that “DD” must announce in May, after a final rally which saw the Blues face Brazil and Colombia two months earlier in friendlies.

Over the past three years, a rejuvenated group around its leader Mbappé, Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembélé, has established itself, giving guarantees on living together, dear to the eyes of “DD”. Even more so as a major competition like the World Cup approaches.

The experience and talent of Karim Benzema, who only played one World Cup in Brazil in 2014 (eliminated 1-0 by Germany in the quarterfinals) are no longer to be proven, but are not part of the areas of thought of the French staff, especially focused on the choice of base camp at the moment.

“I wrote my story and ours ends,” wrote the “Nueve” when leaving the French team on the sly, on December 19, 2022. It is unlikely that this story will see a continuation, even if the person concerned sees himself returning to deliver a last stand of honor.