Anwar Ibrahim (Cairo)
French star Karim Benzema, a player for Saudi club Al-Ittihad, admitted that his first season with the team was forgettable and not ideal, and witnessed some disagreements between him and the previous technical directors, Portuguese Espirito and Argentine Marcelo Gallardo, who was dismissed 7 months after his arrival in Jeddah due to his exclusion of the French star from the team’s lineup at the beginning of 2024.
Benzema said in an interview with the French channel “Canal Plus” that he has strong motivations to compete strongly for the Saudi League championship and outperform Al-Hilal this season 2024-2025. Al-Ittihad came in second last season after Al-Hilal. Benzema, who won the Golden Ball in 2022, expressed his happiness with his compatriot Laurent Blanc taking over the technical leadership of the team, and expressed his regret for the many problems that “disturbed” his first season in the Saudi League.
He said: I do not like to talk about last season and what happened during it. There were many problems that I have always expressed my regret for. This season, I am focusing on football and benefiting from past mistakes to start strongly again and compete for the top of the league. He expressed his determination to defeat Al-Hilal and snatch the title from them. He said that this is his first goal this season to please Al-Ittihad fans. He commented, saying: The most important thing is for a person to look forward and get rid of last year’s mistakes.
Former Real Madrid star Benzema expressed his happiness at the presence of more than one French player in the team this season, as Houssem Aouarou and Moussa Diaby joined, in addition to the presence of N’Golo Kante with him from last season.
Benzema said that he knows the new coach Laurent Blanc well since he was the coach of the French national team, and he confirmed that the team is in its best condition at the present time and is working in the best conditions under Blanc’s leadership. Benzema admitted that he has liked Blanc’s playing philosophy a lot for a long time and described him as a man who knows football well and is very close to the players.
It is worth noting that Laurent Blanc’s start witnessed Al-Ittihad’s victory in the first and second rounds of the Saudi League, and Benzema succeeded in scoring a wonderful goal during the team’s match against Al-Taawoun (2/1).
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