The French Interior Minister had attacked the French Ballon d’Or, accusing him of having links to terrorism. The player’s denial was immediate, coming through his lawyer
“This is false”. Accused on Tuesday evening by French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin of having links with the Muslim Brotherhood, Karim Benzema, former Real Madrid center forward and 2022 Ballon d’Or winner, is thinking of filing a complaint. And he denies, through his lawyer Hugues Vigier, as Le Parisien writes, any link with the Islamist organisation. “Benzema never had the slightest relationship with that organisation. And he decided to live in Saudi Arabia, a country that declared the Muslim Brotherhood terrorists, something France has never done”, declared the lawyer. “We are evaluating proceedings against this minister in application, for example, of the law on the manipulation of information dear to our government and for defamation or even public insult, because this non-existent link with the Muslim Brotherhood, which he says is notorious, is obviously presented as derogatory. It is not acceptable for those in government to believe they are authorized to do something out of pure opportunism.”