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Forward Karim Benzema
Photo: Nick Potts / dpa
After retiring from the French national soccer team, Karim Benzema seems to no longer want to have much to do with most of his ex-colleagues – at least on social media.
According to the media on Instagram, the world footballer unfollowed almost all previous teammates just a few days after he announced his international retirement.
The Real Madrid striker follows just five players who continue to play for "Les Bleus" - his Real Madrid colleagues Eduardo Camavinga and Aurélien Tchouaméni, his former Madrid teammate Raphael Varane and Kylian Mbappé from Paris Saint-Germain and Gladbach's Marcus Thuram.
However, he still follows the official account of the French national team.
The 35-year-old striker had scored 37 goals in 97 international matches for the Équipe Tricolore.
Shortly before the World Cup in Qatar, he sustained a hamstring injury.
But he could have played again in the final against Argentina.
After that there was speculation about a possible return of Benzema to the team for the final.
"I'm not interested in that," Benzema had posted on Instagram at the time.
After scandals with "Les Bleus" crossed
The relationship between him and national coach Didier Deschamps has long been considered tense.
Between 2015 and 2021, Deschamps had refrained from calling up Benzema for the national team.
The reason for this was, among other things, Benzema's role in the "sextape affair", in which the real professional was sentenced to a fine and a suspended prison sentence for aiding and abetting the extortion of his former teammate Mathieu Valbuena.
Accordingly, the French world championship title of 2018 is missing from Benzema's vita.
cev/dpa
