Benzema to Lyon this summer: sporting director confirms the deal was unfeasible

A return of Karim Benzema to Olympique Lyonnais never went beyond the stage of preliminary contact. Matthieu Louis-Jean, sporting director of the Rhône club, confirmed this at a press conference, definitively sweeping aside a rumour that had stirred up the summer transfer window.

“It’s true that there was contact with an intermediary over the summer regarding Karim,” Louis-Jean said. “For me, it didn’t go any further than that. It was unfeasible given his contractual situation. Karim is an immense player.”

The Lyon executive clarified that the club had not sought to pursue the lead, aware from the outset of its limitations: “We didn’t even try to go further because we knew the difficulty of the situation. We had a transfer window to prepare with a striker to sign quickly. At that time, we were working on the arrival of Loïs Openda.”

Benzema is currently a free agent after ending his adventure at Al-Hilal, just seven months after his arrival in Saudi Arabia. The striker with 97 caps for the France national team had signed his first professional contract at Lyon, where he won four Ligue 1 titles before joining Real Madrid in 2009.

The idea of seeing “KB9” complete the circle at his academy club remains in the realm of fantasy. Lyon ultimately focused its efforts on other attacking recruits, and nothing suggests at this stage that the matter could be reopened.