Patrice Evra blasts France players after World Cup

Former France captain Patrice Evra has criticised the attitude of France’s players towards Karim Benzema during the World Cup in Qatar in an Instagram post.

The Real Madrid forward pulled out of the French camp ahead of the tournament with a quadriceps injury, but could have been given game time as his injury was not serious. Former Manchester United left-back Evra was “disappointed” with how Benzema was treated.

“On the human side, there is a small problem and I was disappointed by the human attitude (...) From the outside, I have the impression that Karim [Benzema] upset a lot of people. You, the players, for not supporting him... you have to go to war for a player (...) Let’s take the case of [Ángel] Di María, who is injured for the whole World Cup, plays in the final and scores a goal. It’s the coach’s responsibility. He makes decisions, we told Karim to do his thing. But you, the players, I think [Didier] Deschamps always puts the team before a player. It is also said that you players, some of you were angry, jealous and that he was overshadowing you,” Evra’s post read.

Evra adds: “You are making the same mistake as the 98 world champions, who thought that the French national team belonged to them. The French national team belongs to everyone. You want to decide who comes, who should come, you don’t need that and you shouldn’t make the same mistake. We have the Ballon d’Or in our team. If he was still here, we would have even waited for Karim before lunch. I didn’t see anyone fighting for it”.

Just days after the 2022 World Cup final, which France lost to Argentina, Benzema announced his international retirement on social media.