The Real Madrid players formally found out at the same time as the rest of the world that Karim Benzema was leaving the Bernabéu, when the club issued a statement on the morning of the last game of last season. The French striker, captain of that locker room and current Ballon d'Or winner at the time, did not gather his teammates before to solemnly convey to them his departure. The next day, he did not give a farewell press conference, as others had done, and stuck to a few brief words at an institutional event.
The mystery continues to accompany the striker, now in Al-Ittihad in Jeddah, the second largest city in Saudi Arabia (3.4 million inhabitants), on the shores of the Red Sea and, above all, half an hour by car by highway. from Mecca. Of Algerian origins and a self-confessed Muslim, Benzema was quick to proclaim his spiritual connection with the holy place of Islam. “When you travel there, you are in the truth. You feel good and pure,” he stated in an interview with the local League two months after arriving. A religious profile that in recent months also led to his umpteenth controversy in France, when the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, assured that he “has a notorious link with the Muslim Brotherhood.” He denied it. Regarding his white past, however, he only briefly said that he thought that, with everything he had won, “it was a good time for another challenge.”
His new club, one of the big four, controlled by the PIF (public investment fund of Saudi Arabia), recruited him at a rate of 100 million euros per season, but the poor sporting performance and some criticism of his game have raised his habitual mutism. In recent weeks, he even closed his Instagram profile, although it is expected that he will be able to recover it soon. Al-Ittihad, champion last season, is seventh in the League after also signing Fabinho (46 million, from Liverpool) and N'Golo Kanté (arrived free from Chelsea), and did not reach the final phase of the Club World Cup that was disputed in his city.
The adaptation
In the midst of this erratic trajectory, in the dismissal at the beginning of November of coach Nuno Espirito Santo, replaced by the Argentine Marcelo the doll Gallardo was also implicated due to his alleged bad relationship. “The coach wanted more things and it seems like he wasn't giving them to him. I think that Nuno's dismissal also comes from that situation,” comments Antonio Cazorla (Granada, 58 years old), with a decade of experience on the Saudi Arabian bench and who at the end of the last campaign managed Al-Ettifaq (now he is Steven Gerrard). “The players who have gone are very protected. The basis of this racket is the stars, that is clear to them. It is normal for coaches to fall early. The guillotine is so sharp that it is difficult to survive,” says this technician who aspires to return to the country with one role or another.
Benzema, whose team has played some games in Mecca, is the eighth top scorer in the League (nine goals, 12 in all competitions), far from Cristiano Ronaldo's 20 in the local tournament. “Everything requires adaptation after so many years,” concedes Sergio Piernas (Barcelona, 47 years old), one of the coaches of the Saudi Olympic team. “I think he is giving a good performance within his conditions. He comes from a club top World Cup and here they have made a team of good players, but it is not comparable to a Real Madrid. Logically, it has the potential to improve it,” he indicates. A time of grace that Cazorla also appeals to: “He has had a bit of ups and downs and also some physical problems. It will be a matter of time.” For now, we will have to wait until February to take his temperature again – in January the League stops due to the Asia Cup – after an end to the year with a lot of noise around him due to the team's slump (four defeats in the last five meetings).
Showers in cabins
Al-Ittihad is the oldest club in the country – it was founded in 1927 -, an institution with roots. “You go to a game of theirs in the north against a low team and half of the field is theirs. In Spain, it would be Athletic or Betis,” says Antonio Cazorla. In sports, yes, it is usually below Al-Hilal and Al-Nassr, Ronaldo's. “Sometimes, you see differences in level in some matches from first to last that leave a little to be desired. It doesn't help Saudi football. The little ones are demanding help,” says Piernas in a general way.
Beyond what happens with the ball, the reality of the League in which Benzema now plays, and many other signings who have moved to Saudi Arabia, offers unique situations and details regarding his recent routine. The grass, for example, is different from winter to summer. When temperatures soar, they force it to be changed and in winter the cold of the desert is noticeable. “They don't skimp on that,” points out Antonio Cazorla, who mentions a couple of peculiarities of the locker rooms. “The shower areas are private cabins. Nobody inside the booth is seen naked. In these individual spaces they change and wash. Then there is a large common area. In Europe everyone showers together. And then there is the issue of prayer. Before, at half-time or at the end, the players pray. Therefore, sometimes the intermissions are a little longer. The games and training sessions are scheduled at times that do not interfere with prayer,” he explains.
It is the new habitat of Karim Benzema, whose landing next to Mecca, where he was photographed (it was not the first time he went), has passed under his usual silence and weighed down by a team that does not work in a League far from the elite.
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