Madrid (AFP)

Repudiated in France, adored in Spain: star striker Karim Benzema strings together goals and titles at Real Madrid but is unloved in France and excluded from the selection because of his bad boy image, reinforced by "the affair of the sextape ".

Sent back to the Versailles Criminal Court on Thursday in this case which pits him against his former colleague in the France team Mathieu Valbuena, Karim Benzema (33) is caught up in the courts at a time when he seems most fulfilled in his career footballer, with a third title in the Spanish league gleaned in July under the orders of his tutelary figure, Zinédine Zidane.

fifth top scorer in its history.

"For me, this is the best"

Since his arrival in 2009, he has scored over 250 goals for the Spanish club, making him the

French center-forward in history, even judged Zidane in December.

"He proves it, he has been playing for Real Madrid for a very long time, he has more than 500 matches, all the goals ... In the end, his record, everything he has accomplished here speaks for him."

"The best? It's not for me to judge because I haven't seen all the matches. But in my opinion he had the best season of his career" in 2019-2020, agreed the president of the French Football Federation (FFF), Noël Le Graët, July 23 in an interview with RMC Sport.

It is this same Le Graët who assured in November 2019 that Benzema's "France adventure" was definitely over, while the attacker has not appeared in Blue since October 2015 and the outbreak of the so-called affair. of the "sextape".

- Popular area -

But entering the pantheon of the best center-forward of illustrious Real Madrid and the Champions League is not enough: despite a well-filled trophy cabinet (four French championships with Lyon, three Spanish championships and four Champions Leagues with Real ...), "KB9" has trouble shedding the image of a hothead that sticks to his skin, stuck between his collection of cars and luxury clothes, and his bad company.

Because it is his fidelity to his childhood friend of the working-class district of Bron (suburb of Lyon), Karim Zenati, which earned him his troubles in "the sextape affair".

Since his custody, which had the effect of a bomb in 2015, Karim Benzema is suspected of being involved in an attempt to blackmail his teammate Mathieu Valbuena over a video of a sexual nature.

Suspected of having asked Benzema to convince Valbuena to pay, Zenati was also sent to court.

Far from his usual media silence, his altruistic character on a football field and the image of a good tidy father that he tries to distill throughout "stories" on social networks, Benzema is entangled in the worst extra-sporting scandal of a career already peppered with road trips.

- Zidane, his "big brother" -

Previously, with Franck Ribéry, he had been associated with the "Zahia affair".

Returned to the criminal court for "solicitation of a minor prostitute", he was however released in January 2014, like Ribéry.

In July 2014, his then agent, Karim Djaziri, accompanied by Zenati, was accused by the daily L'Equipe of having "attacked" some of his journalists in Ribeirao Preto, the Blues' base camp at the World Cup in Brazil.

Benzema also got into trouble for speeding in the Spanish capital.

This did not prevent Karim Benzema from making his nest in Spain, in the demanding Real, and from maturing, under the aegis of Zidane, whom he has often called "big brother".

"Footballistically, (Benzema) is simply the best. So yes, he has his place in the France team," said "Zizou" on November 8, 2019.

"I know he is very attached to the selection. He always wanted to play there", regretted the French coach of Real, without being able to influence the truncated international career of his protégé.

© 2021 AFP