PARIS (Reuters) – French police questioned Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema on Wednesday in connection with an inquiry into an alleged attempt to blackmail fellow-France soccer international Mathieu Valbuena, a police source said.
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Investigators are looking into allegations of attempts to blackmail Valbuena using sex video footage and they took several others, including former 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.
“He has nothing to reproach himself for,” Benzema’s lawyer, Sylvain Cormier, was quoted as saying by French media.
“He is even happy to be able to put an end to this terrible controversy.”
(Reporting by Chine Labbe; Writing by Brian Love. Editing by Patrick Johnston and Ken Ferris)