French Far-right Attacks Houssem Aouar, Compares Him To Benzema 

A member of the French far-right party, the National Front, attacked the new French international, Houssem Aouar, in his first test with the French national team, last Wednesday, questioning his identity, patriotism and loyalty to France, after refusing to repeat the French anthem during the aforementioned match, likening his position to that of the former international, Karim Benzema, who is the source of attacks of the controversial “racist” French party.

This attack on Awar coincided only hours after he made statements glorifying the French team and belittling his “football” option. The Algerians described it as provocative and directed at them after criticizing him because he chose to play for the French national team at the expense of the Algerian “desert warriors”, which left a broad wave of discontent among Algerians who commented on his statements on social media and severely criticized him, before the MP of Marine Le Pen’s party strengthened their position, which implied that Aouar could not find the support and love that he would have met with Algeria if he had chosen the Algerian national team, in France.

The European Parliament member of the National Front, Bonicel Geoffrey, posted a tweet, in which he criticized Aouar’s failure to repeat the French anthem, and said: “It seems that singing the French anthem annoys Aouar .. It is a tradition for some players of Lyon”, in an explicit reference to the former international, Karim Benzema, who was removed from the French national team for a long time for reasons that the Real Madrid star did not hesitate to describe as “racism”, confirming the identity controversy that still accompanies the French national team, which followers describe as the national team of “The rest of the world” because it included players of different origins, especially Africa, despite the services they provided to it, most notably their contribution to the World Cup crowning on two occasions in 1998 and 2018.

On the other hand, Aouar had provoked the Algerians with statements in which he justified his choice of France, and said: “I am very proud to carry the blue colour, and the best players are playing here, and all the elements of the team helped me to integrate. I am very happy with my participation for the first time and my contribution to the victory over Ukraine, with scoring seven goals, before confirming: “I repeat that the best players are carrying the colours of the French national team, and being with them means that I am of the same class, and this is what makes me proud”. These statements caused a wide wave of anger among the Algerians, who attacked and criticized the players of Olympic Lyon strongly.