Rumors began swirling Wednesday morning that Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema told Ferland Mendy not to pass the ball to Vinicius Junior in the second half of the Champions League. I am not buying it.
Waking up this morning to an Instagram post sent to me by a friend, I was rather confused. “What are your thoughts on this, Ben?” He had sent me a grainy picture of Karim Benzema and fullback Ferland Mendy speaking in the tunnel at Borussia-Park on Tuesday night shortly before the second half began.
With Los Blancos down a goal and struggling to find the target, the halftime talk from manager Zinedine Zidane was likely lively and straight forward.
According to Telefoot, Benzema was not discussing the halftime talk from the manager. Rather, reports captured (on audio or by reading lips? I am unsure) him telling Mendy, “He does what he wants. Don’t pass to him, brother. He’s playing against us.”
The images were broadcast on French sports TV and fans quickly began assuming that this audio was indeed fact without doing any further research.
Personally, I don’t believe this was said for several reasons.
The first reason, and biggest I think, is that Benzema has been a mentor for Vini.
Since his arrival from Brazil, Vinicius Junior has been a regular in the Real Madrid squad. Everyone can agree that the young winger struggles to finish the chances he creates, and other than his shortcomings in the final third, is a phenomenal talent with plenty of potential.
Vini has worked closely with Benzema for over two years now and the French goalscorer has taken the player under his wing and supported him without fail. As ESPNFC aptly points out, Benzema has been spotted coaching Vinicius on the pitch and the two have had what seems like a ‘bromance’ on social media.
Despite maybe a couple of small incidents during the course of a match, the two have never had a dust-up in training, an argument caught on camera, or anything indicating there is bad blood.
From watching the tape, how was it determined this was the topic of discussion?
I have no idea how Telefoot was able to understand this was said, but everyone is reporting that Karim was targeting Vini in this discussion with Mendy. There is no audio – that I have heard – captured from the tunnel and Benzema is covering his mouth with his hand while the two are talking.
To further my claim that Benzema did not say this, Vinicius was standing right there behind them! I know they were speaking French, but don’t you think he would have some clue he was the one being talked about?
However, the stats could confirm these rumors.
Detailed stats from the second half do provide some proof that Benzema was upset with Junior as the striker did not pass to the left-winger once in the second half after passing to him three times in the first.
0 - Karim Benzema no le pasó ningún balón a Vinicius Jr en la segunda mitad del encuentro de Champions League ante el Borussia Mönchengladbach (tres en la primera parte). Distancia. pic.twitter.com/f6nBbWi9oP
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) October 28, 2020
Benz posted a strange message to his Instagram after the story broke, saying, “While the dogs bark, the No. 9 passes by.”
I hope and wish this is nothing more than clickbait to get attention and this was not said. We will standby and wait for more details on this story because if true, there could be serious internal turmoil brewing at Real Madrid.