The France team arrives at Clairefontaine this Wednesday to launch the preparation for Euro 2021.
New to the world champions, Karim Benzema should be at the center of all attention when disembarking at the castle.
If the news of his return has delighted a good part of the supporters, it remains to be seen how the Madrilenian will blend into an already well-established collective.
We often bathe you with questions of integration each time a newcomer tiptoes in the France team. Did the executives welcome him? Has everyone been nice to him? We pass and the most clichés. But you will recognize for once that with the great return of Karim Benzema in Blue, the question deserves to be asked. While most players find a place and a context on Wednesday that they know well, the Madrilenian has some catching up to do and a place to find in this collective which has no less than 15 world champions.
In recent years, Didier Deschamps was not the last to wave the tea towel "incompatibility of mood" when explaining the non-selection of the former Lyonnais, in the name of the sacrosanct balance of life. social group.
So, before even talking about the game and tactical schemes, we wondered to what extent the return of the maestro would influence the lives of the Blues.
The Benz, a player "respected" by the entire locker room
Friend of Benzema since their Lyon years, Frédéric Piquionne almost suffocated when we submitted the angle of our article to him. “I do not even understand that people can ask these kinds of questions! The integration of Karim will be done in the most natural way possible because he is Karim, he is an incredibly humble player, who is aware that the France team has lived and won without him and that he does not come to overshadow others but to bring its contribution to the building. "
This is what transpires from start to finish in the interview he gave to our colleagues from
L'Equipe on
Tuesday, especially when he mentions the number 10 he wore at the time and which is today. 'hui is the preserve of Mbappé. “Humility, you have to have it all the time, jersey or no jersey, beginner or former, great player or small player, always, says Benzema. It's part of me. Yes, I had a number before, but players came and got that number. I didn't feel like coming back and saying "give me your number", no, especially not ". “He's so happy to come back that he would have played with any number! », Laughs Piquionne.
More than a sticker stuck on the back, what will make it work or not is its understanding with other internationals, its ability to quickly blend into the collective.
However, from what we have seen through the declas of Mbappé, Coman, Tolisso or Mandanda after the announcement of the list of 26, it is that everyone appreciates his return.
KB x KM 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/72smmr87f2
- Kylian Mbappé (@KMbappe) May 18, 2021
"Benzema is not just anyone," engages the former Clermont coach Régis Brouard.
He is respected by everyone for his performances.
When he arrives in the locker room, it's not a new kid that the executives could look askance, no, we are talking about Karim Benzema!
There is not even a debate.
I think he will immediately find his place in the locker room and that he will be welcomed with open arms.
"
"The players know how to measure themselves, compare themselves"
“There is one thing that must be understood with these players, with the internationals of the great nations, continues Brouard, is that they want nothing more than to win. But they are not stupid, when they see the level of Benzema this season, they understand that they are more likely to do it with him than without him. This is why he does not believe a word when Deschamps explains that he has not surveyed any of his players on a possible comeback of the prodigy son.
“He has maintained real ties of closeness and trust with his executives for years, it is impossible that he has not at least touched a word with them.
Not so much to get their opinion, but let's say at least to take the temperature.
And from the moment when his executives gave the impression of being in favor of his return, I think that the question of his integration will not pose any problems at all.
"
Even with the kart driver 'Olivier Giroud?
“Of course!” Replies Madrid's Formula 1 in L '
Equipe
.
I saw him during the match against Chelsea, we talked, quiet.
He congratulated me on my goal, it was good spirit ”.
Assistant to the France team for a good twenty years, Henri Emile knows the two men very well.
For him, no chance that things go wrong.
"You know, between them, the players know how to gauge each other, to compare themselves, they know who is better and therefore who will start and who can make a difference during the match, he explains.
Olivier [Giroud] is aware that he has a phenomenal chance to be part of the game even though he plays very little with his club and that he is getting older.
It is therefore not someone who is going to pose a problem in this group.
He's smart enough to find his new place on his own.
"
For Benzema, the collective comes first
Basically, asking the question of the adaptation of Benzema within this team of France is to admit that there is something, in the character of the player, that can be problematic in a group. What his irreproachable career at Real Madrid, where he is more and more often captain, seems to deny. Fred Piquionne: “People sometimes have a bad image of Karim, but in a group, this boy never posed the slightest problem to anyone. You just have to see what the great coaches and the great players are saying about him. "
Or the great assistants. Henri Emile: “We often talk about the image that Karim gives off, but to get to know him well, I can assure you that he is a charming person, very endearing, with whom we take pleasure in talking and immediately wants to take under his control. There is a lot, a lot of affection in his demeanor and this is something that people on the outside cannot sense when they see him behind a camera. The man is very pleasant and very easy going. "
Above all, more than most great strikers of his species, the Benzema that those who know him describe to us is a player eminently focused on the collective performance of his team.
It shows in the way he plays.
“It's almost a bit of a shame sometimes in terms of efficiency, because a forward striker has to be a little selfish in a way, but not Karim, no, notes Henri Emile.
Him, alongside all this mastery he has in the finish, he always thinks to see if a player is not better placed than him to finish the job.
And he is in life as he is in the field, he thinks first of all about the collective.
It is a case which rolls in this case.
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