The Saudi club Al-Ittihad granted its captain, French striker Karim Benzema, a three-day leave of absence “due to special circumstances,” according to what a club official told Agence France-Presse on Saturday.
The Frenchman, the best player in the world in 2022, is going through an unstable period with his Saudi team, which witnessed him losing the last 3 matches in the local league and being excluded from the Club World Cup against Al-Ahly of Egypt in a match in which Benzema missed a penalty kick.
Benzema (36 years old), the former Spanish Real Madrid player, was subjected to a torrent of sharp criticism that prompted him to deactivate his account on Instagram, where 76 million people follow him.
An official at Al-Ittihad Club, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that Benzema “requested a three-day leave due to special circumstances.”
He added that the five-time Champions League winner “traveled to Madrid on Thursday evening.”
He stressed that “Karim is a very professional player and remains committed to the team.”
This leave almost resulted in the absence of Benzema, who has scored 9 goals in 15 matches so far in the league, from the match with Al-Tai on Saturday evening.
However, the Saudi Competitions Committee announced, on Friday, the postponement of the match after the Al-Ittihad team, known in Saudi Arabia as “The Brigadier,” was unable to travel to the city of Hail to face Al-Taei, due to bad weather conditions.
Consequently, the match was postponed until next February 7, when the competition resumed after a pause of more than a month and a half due to the Asian Cup being held in Qatar.
Al-Ittihad, which fell to sixth place by 25 points behind leaders Al-Hilal (with one less match for Al-Ittihad), has become the weakest team offensively and defensively among the big quartet (Al-Hilal, Al-Nasr, Al-Ahly and Al-Ittihad), who were acquired by the Saudi Public Investment Fund last summer and financed their huge deals.
