An angry Benzema breaks silence over rumors of his departure from Saudi Arabia

Karim Benzema has been in the news in recent weeks for his conflict with Al-Ittihad. He arrived there last summer, when he surprisingly left Real Madrid to accept a multi-million offer from the Saudi club, who were aiming to compete with Cristiano Ronaldo and Al-Nassr. His first months in the Pro League were good, with several goals and good performances.

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But things started to get complicated afterwards. First there were rumors of his bad relationship with then coach Nuno Espiritu Santo, who finally left because of the team's disappointing results in the league. He was replaced by Argentine Marcelo Gallardo, but things did not improve. A quick elimination in the Club World Cup and a poor performance in the Pro League caused dissatisfaction among fans, who pointed to Karim as one of the main culprits.

Against this backdrop, the striker was absent for the last days of 2023 and the return to training in January. The official explanation was that he was in Mauritius and a cyclone prevented him from returning to Saudi Arabia. But that did not matter to Gallardo, who decided to leave him out of the list of players called up for the tour in Dubai.

This sparked rumors about Benzema's departure from Al-Ittihad and his possible signing by a European club. Olympique Lyonnais, the club where he started his career, was mentioned as an option, but the main favorites seem to be Manchester United and, above all, Chelsea. The Blues need strikers to replace Nicolas Jackson and Christopher Nkunku and are willing to pay big money for the former Real Madrid player.

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He is not happy

Faced with these rumors of his possible departure from Al-Ittihad, Karim Benzema broke his silence and proved to be very angry with the press. According to L'Equipe, he said: "It's completely false! The French media don't know what to invent any more. The bigger the better". This seems to indicate that he will stay in Saudi Arabia, but Chelsea still dream of signing him for the second half of the season.