I’m like a Formula One car, Olivier is a go-kart
BENZEMA FIRES BITTER BLAST AT FRANCE RIVAL
KARIM BENZEMA says he was right to claim he is “Formula One” and World Cup winner Olivier Giroud is “karting”.
The Real Madrid striker attacked the Chelsea forward during an Instagram Live chat and added “Aside from that, does everyone like the way he plays?”
And Benzema, who has not played for France since 2015, has released a video on social media to repeat his mockery of his fellow international. “I simply told the truth,” he said. “What I said about what he brought to the French team hasn’t been remembered. We remembered when I said I was Formula One and he is karting. If you ask me about R9 [Brazilian Ronaldo], he is Formula One and I am karting, – that’s how it is!” Benzema was first left out of the France team – and criticised by the French prime minister – after being arrested for the alleged blackmailing of fellow player Mathieu Valbuena over a sex tape in 2015. When he was excluded from the squad for their home Euro 2016, he claimed that coach Didier Deschamps had “bowed to pressure from a racist part of France”. Benzema, now 32, comes from Algerian descent. Deschamps said he could not forgive Benzema for the slur and also omitted him in 2018 when France won the World Cup with Giroud up front.
The forward, who scored 27 goals in 81 appearances for France, is still under investigation for blackmail and could face trial. His Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane has backed his international recall.
When asked in the Instagram Live chat if the Chelsea striker was better than him, fourtime Champions League winner Benzema said: “We don’t confuse Formula One and karting and I am being nice. I know that I am Formula One.”