Didier Deschamps affirms that he decided the return of Real Madrid player Karim Benzema to the “bleus” as the coach that he is and insists that other considerations have not been involved there of a personal nature. In an interview released this Monday by the station France Info, Deschamps does not want to give details about what was the element that made the situation change, after five and a half years during which Benzema had not been called up with the national team.
However, he acknowledges that “the most important stage” was a meeting that took place between the two in which they could discuss: “without that it would have been impossible”. When asked if it is not easy to forgive, the coach avoids entering into the question of whether he forgave the Madrid forward (“Talking about forgiveness is something very big”), who in his confrontation in recent years reproached him for “having yielded to a racist part of France.”
He insists that he has not acted as a man, but as a selector, in accordance with the role he performs. “I repeat it, although some do not want to understand it: my personal case goes from behind”. Benzema was effectively excluded from the national team after the scandal broke out in October 2015 for his alleged involvement in an attempted blackmail of the then other “bleus” player, Mathieu Valbuena.
Deschamps assures that he approaches the European Championship with “a lot of serenity and tranquility” and that his objective, as since he has been in the position since 2012, is “to go as far as possible”, which means to be champion of the European Championship. He explains that he has called up eight forwards who have “different profiles”, that everyone is not going to play at the same time, but that thanks to that he has “different options and a lot of quality”.