Is France’s top footballer Karim Benzema involved in the blackmailing of Mathieu Valbuena? The case goes to court today
In terms of sport, Karim Benzema has seldom been as smooth as it is today: In Spain, the 33-year-old Frenchman from Real Madrid tops the scorers list, and the former enfant terrible is also scoring goals in the French national team after his protracted return – dream goals. It is no coincidence that he is considered the favorite for the prestigious Ballon d’Or title for the best footballer of the year.
On this Wednesday, Benzema first has to go to a court in Versailles, west of Paris. There he was caught by an affair seven years ago about a video with private sex scenes. Several people from the football milieu are said to have blackmailed the former national player Mathieu Valbuena (37) with the film clip. Five people are charged, including Benzema as an accomplice. He is now facing five years imprisonment and a fine of 75,000 euros. The process is said to take three days. Valbuena, now a midfielder for the Greek club Olympiacos Piraeus, wants to be present. Benzema was different, for whom a Champions League game was on the program on Tuesday evening in Ukraine.
The facts of the extortion are beyond doubt. Valbuena asked a friend in 2014 to synchronize the phone list on his cell phone. As a result, however, a sex video on the device also came into circulation. Valbuena switched on the judiciary, which had various telephones tapped. It emerges from this that Benzema was urged by a childhood friend who had been released from prison to influence Valbuena. Benzema then advised his teammate – who was very keen on him – on the sidelines of a game to bring the matter to a good end. Whether he also stopped him to pay is controversial. Benzema’s lawyer said, according to the Parisian media, his client only wanted to warn Valbuena with the words: “Watch out, this happened to me too.”
The judiciary opened criminal proceedings against Benzema in 2015 for “aiding and abetting extortion”. National coach Didier Deschamps called neither him nor Valbuena. Benzema told a Spanish newspaper that Deschamps would apparently follow the “racist part of France” if he stopped using him. He was already dragged through the mud in a prostitute affair, but was ultimately acquitted. His defense attorney questioned the whole investigation because the police had set a dishonest trap for the blackmailers. The French court of cassation approved this procedure in 2019 and gave the green light for the process.
The French footballer Lucas Hernandez is currently making headlines off the field. The 25-year-old defender of FC Bayern Munich will face a six-month prison sentence in Spain on October 28 for having approached his partner contrary to the judge’s orders following a domestic violence case. Unless Hernandez succeeds in his calling by then.
