The Criminal Court of Versailles has found Karim Benzema, a forward of Real Madrid and the French national team, guilty of blackmailing former French midfielder Mathieu Valbuena, RMC Sport reports.
According to the publication, Benzema is accused of complicity in the attempt to blackmail his former teammate. Karim was sentenced to one-year probation and a fine of 75 thousand euros.
According to the investigation, in 2015, Benzema acted as a mediator and pushed Valbuena to pay money to the blackmailers. Valbuena was threatened with posting an intimate video on the Internet. Due to this scandal, both players were expelled from Euro 2016, as the coach of the French national team removed both players from the field in connection with the incident.
Benzema was no longer called up to the national team until 2021, and he was only brought back before Euro 2020 by Didier Deschamps.
