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Real Madrid star Karim Benzema will be attending the finalof the HH Nasser bin Hamad Ramadan Football Tournament tomorrow.
The Nasser 11 event, the latest iteration of the traditionalRamadan football festival, has seen a number of thrilling encounters andBenzema will be overseeing the concluding fixture after being invited by ShaikhNasser.
The forward scored his side’s opening goal in the ChampionsLeague Final victory over Liverpool last Saturday. Shaikh Nasser posted a videoon social media app Instagram to announce Benzema’s attendance.
The player, who has courted plenty of off the fieldcontroversy in recent times, said he was proud to be attending the tournamentand meeting football fans in Bahrain.
The 29-year-old striker has won 81 caps for his country buthas not been picked for World Cup duty in Russia.
After being left out of the France squad for Euro 2016, theplayer accused the national coach Didier Deschamps of bowing ‘to pressure froma racist part of France’. While Benzema’s mother was born and raised in Lyon,his father immigrated to France from the same part of northeast Algeria as theparents of Zinedine Zidane, his manager at Real Madrid.
“As long as Didier Deschamps is coach, I have no chance ofgetting back into the France team,” Benzema, scoring left, said in an interviewlast month. But Deschamps has said that not selecting Benzema was better forthe ‘balance’ and ‘harmony’ of his squad.
