Former Real Madrid striker and 2022 Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema has been dragged into the Hamas-Israel war by a French government official over his support of Palestinian people, international media reported.
Benzema was labelled a terrorist by French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin after he wrote a message of support for Palestine on X, formerly Twitter.
Darmanin said during a live broadcast on CNews, a French news broadcaster, that Benezema had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and should be stripped of his nationality and accolades for his support of Palestine.
The French government considers the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation.
The televised broadcast was in French, but CNN reported an English copy of the quote in which Darmanin puts Benzema under fire.
“We have closed 1,100 Islamist establishments. And in recent weeks, I’ve been particularly interested. Mr Benzema is linked, we all know it, notoriously with the Muslim Brotherhood.
“We are attacking a hydra that is the Muslim Brotherhood because they create an ‘atmospheric jihadism’, like Gilles Kepel would say,” Darmanin is quoted as saying.
Gilles Kepel is a well-known French political scientist who specialises in Islamic culture.
Benzema is also known as a firm believer in Islamic culture. Benzema, born in Lyon to Algerian parents, scored 37 goals in 97 games for France, according to Fifa.
He retired from international football in December 2022.
The French Minister did not provide any proof that showed Benzema had links to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Politico reported that Valérie Boyer, vice president of the conservative Les Républicains party, said that if Damanin’s statement was true, then they would have to consider sanctions against the French football sensation.
Boyer said that taking away Benzema’s ‘golden ball’ would be the first symbolic sanction.
Benzema’s lawyer, Hugues Vigier, replied to the claims and said they were false.
On Wednesday, Vigier told French media house Le Parisien “This is false! Karim Benzema never had any relation with this organisation.”
IOL