“It is important to be in a Muslim country where I already feel that people love me, it will allow me to have a new life. I want to speak the Arabic language fluently, for me it’s important” said Karim Benzema in June 2023, after a shocking signing for AL-Ittihad. Come January, all this doesn’t matter anymore, because there is no more hiding the fact that he wants out ASAP. According to multiply reports from the desert, he asked the club for a ‘temporary’ exit. The news are shocking, considering the amount of money he received for arriving, and the fact that Benzema is a declared Muslim, and the most holy places in Muslim religion are based in Saudi Arabia. But it seems that he is not happy after all, as he seeks to leave.’A lot of players are unhappy in Saudi Arabia’Many claimed that the reason for his unhappiness is the fallout with the club. He missed the training camp and cited that a cyclone that caught him in the Mauritius Islands, where he was on vacation, was the reason for that. But the club didn’t forgot that he already missed three training sessions prior to the end of the year. New coach Marcelo Gallardo removed him from the first team due to these events and according to Marca, Benzema trains alone in Saudi Arabia, while the club prepares in Dubai. Benzema: ‘It is important to be in a Muslim country’Now, if it was only a fallout with the club, and not the living conditions, Benzema would have taken the offer he got from Al-Ittihad, who, according to AFP, offered to loan him to another team in the Saudi championship, but he refused. The same source claimed that the 36-year-old feels ‘unable to give the best of himself to Al-Ittihad because of the pressure’. Looks silly, considering that he played for Real Madrid, where pressure is a normal thing. If the club allows him to ‘temporarily’ leaves, Lyon remains an option, even thou it means that he will fight against relegation with his boyhood club, not to mention a severe pay cut. Chelsea was mentioned as an idea, but so far, nothing is concrete. ##NAJAVA_MECA_7822142##
