Real Madrid marksman Karim Benzema has been reduced to spending a night in police custody in Versailles after being held as part of the investigation into a plot to blackmail France teammate Mathieu Valbuena.
Investigators are looking into allegations of attempts to blackmail Valbuena using sex video footage and took several others, including Liverpool striker Djibril Cisse, in for questioning in mid-October.
Benzema’s name came up during phone taps in relation to the inquiry opened last July, said the police source, speaking on condition of anonymity as is standard practice in France for police officers without official communications roles.
Benzema “has nothing to do with this matter”, said Sylvain Cormier, the French forward’s lawyer, who added that it was “the player himself” who asked him to contact the investigating judge to inform him that he was willing to answer any of his questions “if he deemed it necessary”.
