Hugo Lloris has denied allegations that he did not want Karim Benzema to train with France during the World Cup.
The winner of the Ballon d’Or was selected for the Les Blues team and was expected to play a key role after winning the award.
Olivier Giroud filled in for Benzema when he was forced to miss several weeks due to an injury a day before the competition.
However, France decided to continue with the lineup that had carried them thus far. Benzema did recover in time for the knockout rounds.
Senior players allegedly stood in the way of Benzema’s prospective recall, but the Tottenham goalie has denied this.
He commented on the allegation in an interview with l’Equipe as follows: “There are a lot of things that have been said, which are either false or ridiculous: the atmosphere was very good before he left, and very good after. But we would all have preferred that the Ballon d’Or winner, when we see what he has brought since his return, could be with us. He’s still a major asset!”
“To say that we would have pushed for him to leave is completely false, and I do not see how we would benefit from that. He was essential for 18 months, he helped us win the Nations League, his return would only have been positive. It is really dishonest to claim that some of us were in favour of his departure. When you approach a World Cup, you want to do it with your best players.”
Benzema, who was absent from the international scene for a while, has ended his international career weeks before Hugo Lloris did the same.
In a historically significant World Cup final, Lionel Messi and Argentina defeated France on penalties, preventing them from defending their title.
The French goalkeeper acknowledges that the team was taken aback when they learned that Benzema had to depart training camp due to an injury.
He also added: “For Karim, we were all a little surprised. What we as players experienced with his departure is this: you train in the evening, he gets injured, you go to bed, and the next day when you get up you are told that Karim has left. Everything happened so quickly. It was presented as a medical package, and we, the players, discovered it in the morning, in a period when something was happening almost every day.”
After 97 caps and 37 goals since his debut in 2007, Benzema announced the end of his career after Qatar World Cup.
Hugo Lloris
Hugo Hadrien Dominique Lloris, a goalkeeper for Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur, was born on December 26, 1986.
He has won the Ligue 1 Goalkeeper of the Year award from the National Union of Professional Footballers (UNFP) three times.
Lloris started his professional career with his local team OGC Nice, where he made his debut in October 2005 as a teenager and started in goal as the team advanced to the 2006 Coupe de la Ligue Final.
Lloris left the club after three successful seasons, despite interest from a number of other clubs, most notably Milan, to join seven-time Ligue 1 winners Olympique Lyonnais.
Lloris received nominations for honors for his UEFA Champions League efforts during his second season with Lyon, which saw Lyon get to the semifinals for the first time. Lloris won several domestic honours during his first season with Lyon.
In 2019, he assisted Tottenham, which he joined in 2012, in reaching the Champions League final which they lost to Liverpool.
Hugo Lloris is a French international who has played at the under-18, under-19, and under-21 levels for his country. He participated in the under-19 team that won the 2005 UEFA European Under-19 Championship before transitioning to the senior level.
In a friendly matchup against Uruguay in November 2008, Lloris made his senior international debut.
He assisted France in securing a spot in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and the media praised him for his two-leg performance against the Republic of Ireland.
In addition to leading France to quarterfinal appearances at both the UEFA Euro 2012 and the 2014 FIFA World Cup, runners-up finishes at the UEFA Euro 2016 and the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and the 2018 FIFA World Cup victory in Russia, he served as the national team’s captain for the first time in 2010 before taking over as first-choice captain on February 28, 2012. He has the most appearances for France.
Why did Benzema miss the World Cup?
Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema missed the competition before it even began due to a thigh injury he sustained during their first training session in Doha.
Deschamps is said to have sent the striker home despite the fact that his injury only required minor treatment, according to a December 2022 report in the Spanish journal Libertad Digital.
Prior to leaving for vacation, Benzema allegedly just required three days of treatment at Real Madrid’s training center. He has since made a full recovery.
He reportedly desired to remain with the French squad for medical attention but was ejected from the camp.
In December 2022, L’Equipe said that Benzema had not communicated with the French team since departing Qatar.
They further assert that their relationship, which was already anything from peaceful, is now totally “broken.”
Benzema’s entourage reportedly voiced complaints about the way France’s medical staff handled his thigh ailment, but the striker’s silence over his fitness allegedly gave the impression that he was concealing something.
Benzema allegedly thought it was strange that Deschamps did not send up a replacement for him since he felt the coach should have given him time to recover instead of sending him home.
