Foot: Benzema and Valbuena, sextape case and extraordinary trial

Karim Benzema (left) and Mathieu Valbuena.

© Photo AFP - RFI editing

Text by: David Kalfa Follow

6 mins

Footballer Karim Benzema, 33, is on trial from October 20 to 22, 2021 at the Versailles Criminal Court, in the Paris region, with four other defendants for their alleged participation in the so-called "sextape blackmail" case.

Case in which the victim is the former teammate of Benzema in the France team, Mathieu Valbuena, 37 years old.

A look back at an extraordinary scandal that erupted in November 2015.

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This Wednesday, October 20, 2021 opens at the Criminal Court of Versailles, west of Paris, an extraordinary trial.

That of football superstar Karim Benzema, striker for Real Madrid and the France team, as well as four other defendants.

All five are suspected of having contributed in 2015 to a case of intimate video blackmail (sextape) whose alleged victim is Mathieu Valbuena, also a footballer and former teammate of Benzema in the France team.

Recall of facts.

The genesis of the case

In 2014, while playing at the Olympique de Marseille (OM), in the French Championship, Mathieu Valbuena entrusted one of his defective phones to Axel Angot.

The latter, which revolves in the world of football, provides various small services to footballers.

Among the files downloaded from Valbuena's device, Angot discovers a very intimate video of the Marseillais.

That he decides to keep.

A few months later, Angot and another defendant, Mustapha Zouaoui, asked Djibril Cissé, ex-star striker of the France team, to play intermediaries with Mathieu Valbuena, who had left for Russia.

In May 2015, Cissé certainly warns his ex-partner at OM of the existence of a sextape featuring him.

But Cissé's role will end there, according to French justice.

A few days later, a third defendant then entered the scene: Younès Houass.

He too gravitates in the world of football.

The latter, in June 2015, directly contacted Mathieu Valbuena about the video, but without talking about money or consideration.

Karim Benzema enters the scene

This time, the midfielder is taking the matter very seriously.

Mathieu Valbuena then warns the police.

An investigator nicknamed "Lukas" is responsible for playing the intermediary with the owners of the video.

This police officer will subsequently be accused (unsuccessfully) by the defendants of having pushed them to commit an offense, of having encouraged them to demand compensation in exchange for the video.

After long and fruitless discussions, the alleged blackmailers then turned to Karim Zenati.

This one is a childhood friend of Karim Benzema, French football superstar and teammate of Valbuena in Blue.

It was also during a meeting of the France team, in October 2015, that Benzema approached Valbuena about the famous video.

During a hearing before the examining magistrate, Valbuena recounts this improvised exchange in her room, on October 6.

He

[Karim Benzema, Editor's note]

immediately told me '

Math, there is a video, it's hot

'.

I told him I knew about it.

He told me that he liked me and that he could not see himself passing by me and not telling me.

[…] He told me that he could introduce me to someone you can trust

[Karim Zenati, Editor's note]

, who could handle that.

I said I was willing to pay for my freedom, but there could be copies.

He said to me "

Math on my daughter, there will be no copy" ".

The scandal breaks out

The rest is known. On November 4, Karim Benzema was taken into police custody in Versailles and then indicted the next day for "complicity in attempted blackmail". The case leaked to the media. The scandal breaks out. The French football team finds itself well in spite of itself taken in this affair which opposes two of its holders. On November 11, 2015, the broadcast in the press of a telephone interview between Karim Benzema and his friend Karim Zenati, recorded by the investigators, cast a shadow over the Real player. He makes disjointed and contemptuous remarks towards Valbuena.

Pressure is mounting on the French Football Federation (FFF). On December 10, 2015, the boss of the FFF Noël Le Graët indicates that Karim Benzema is dismissed “ 

until the situation changes

 ”. In February 2016, the judicial control of Benzema was partially lifted, even if the person concerned remains under investigation. In April 2016, the FFF announced that the striker would not be selected for the European Nations Championship (Euro 2016) organized in France.

In June, as Euro 2016 approaches, Karim Benzema strikes back.

In an interview with the Spanish newspaper

Marca

, the Madrilenian proclaims his innocence and accuses Noël Le Graët and coach Didier Deschamps of having yielded

"to a racist part of France".

Its representatives immediately filed an appeal for invalidity with the Versailles prosecutor's office, believing that the legal proceedings were " 

unfair 

".

In vain.

Five years of proceedings and controversy

Between December 2016 and December 2019, the defendants tried unsuccessfully to have all or part of the procedure invalidated.

On January 7, 2021, Karim Benzema was sent back to correctional, along with the four other defendants: Axel Angot, Mustapha Zouaoui, Younès Houass and Karim Zenati.

During this entire period, neither Mathieu Valbuena nor Karim Benzema set foot in Blue again.

The first saw his career decline, after mixed periods at Olympique Lyonnais (2015-2017) and Turkey (2017-2019).

If he has been reliving since 2019 in Greece with Olympiakos Piraeus, the playmaker has never fully recovered from this case of sextape blackmail.

Benzema, on the other hand, continued to shine brightly with Real Madrid, winning in particular the Champions League 2016, 2017 and 2018. Not enough to convince Didier Deschamps to recall him for a World Cup in Russia that the French will win .

Benzema's return to sporting grace

In May 2021, to everyone's surprise, Karim Benzema was however recalled for selection, with a view to the Euro.

Despite a collective failed tournament (elimination in the round of 16), the number 9 of Real is largely spared by the critics.

Dazzling on the field, the 33-year-old player even attracts the praise of the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron who hails " 

a model of success for many young people of immigrant origin".

Two months before the presentation of the Ballon d'Or, Karim Benzema is more than ever one of the favorites to win this prestigious individual distinction.

At the same time when he faces up to 5 years in prison for complicity in attempted blackmail, before the criminal court of Versailles.

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