Football
Jonathan Johnson, PSG correspondent 5y

Karim Benzema fumes at France federation president Noel Le Graet: 'Leave me alone'

Karim Benzema has publicly asked French Football Federation president Noel Le Graet to "forget" and "leave me alone" after his recent comments to Ouest-France.

Le Graet, 76, suggested in his interview that the Real Madrid attacker's international career is over due to a loss of form.

"I have nothing against Karim," said Le Graet. "He has always behaved well when with the team. However, I think that it is over with Les Bleus for him -- particularly since he has been declining in form for some time."

Benzema, 30, did not take long to respond to Le Graet's words and took to Twitter to ask to be left in peace.

"Mr. Le Graet, I ask that you forget me and please leave me alone," the former Lyon man wrote. "France are world champions and that is the essential, the rest is futile. Thank you." #LeGraet #ThatIsEnough #GiveMeABreak

The topic came up during Le Graet's interview after a court in Paris ruled last Thursday that a decision on whether the blackmail case involving Benzema and his former France teammate Mathieu Valbuena will be dropped is to be made early next month.

The Real star is one of six men facing charges linked to an alleged attempt to extort Fenerbahce midfielder Valbuena over a sex tape in a case that dates back to 2015.

Benzema has hinted in the past that Le Graet utilised the scandal to effectively condemn him to international retirement and that World Cup-winning coach Didier Deschamps bowed to racist pressures to exclude him during the 2016 European Championship on home soil.

At present, Los Blancos' No. 9 has 27 goals from 81 appearances with Les Bleus but has not featured since scoring two goals in a 4-0 friendly win over Armenia in Nice back in October of 2015.

Benzema has scored five goals from 11 outings across all competitions for Real this season after a difficult start to life post-Zinedine Zidane and Cristiano Ronaldo.

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