Manchester United panicked and ruled out signing Benzema for this absurd reason

For weeks now Karim Benzema has been in the news for his problems at Al-Ittihad. He arrived there last summer from Real Madrid with the aim of becoming the biggest star of the team and compete with Al-Nassr and Cristiano Ronaldo. But things did not go as expected: they are in seventh place in the Pro League standings, while in the Club World Cup they failed, being eliminated in the quarterfinals against Al-Ahly of Egypt.

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Fans did not take this well and targeted the French striker, who had performed well in his first few games but then dropped his level. With this scenario, things took an unexpected turn when he was absent from the last training sessions of 2023 and did not show up for the return to work in January. While the official explanation was that a cyclone prevented him from leaving Mauritius, reports claim that there are other problems.

That is why during the last few weeks there have been rumors about Karim's possible departure from Al-Ittihad, with several European clubs interested in signing him. Olympique Lyonnais, the team where he made his professional debut in 2004, were mentioned as a possibility, but the favorites seemed to be in England: Chelsea and Manchester United.

However, now The Red Devils have turned down the chance to sign him. According to The Sun, this is due to his impressive salary in Saudi Arabia: $110 million per season. The problem is not that the English side cannot pay that amount of money, although it is very high, but because of the limitations of financial fair-play. In the Premier League the controls on this are very strict and there have been cases of clubs sanctioned with points deductions for breaking the rules. In fact, it happened to Everton this season.

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What will happen to him?

Although Karim Benzema assured this week that rumors about his departure from Al-Ittihad are false, reports indicate that Chelsea are very interested in signing him to solve their attacking problems: Christopher Nkunku's injuries and Nicolas Jackson's departure to play the Africa Cup of Nations have left coach Mauricio Pochettino with few alternatives in that sector of the field.