As a Barca fan, I’d think you’d maybe be more willing to look into the details of the blackmail case to see what he actually did. The extent of the “blackmail” was Benzema becoming aware of what had happened and then telling his teammate he might just want to pay to put it all to rest before a major tournament with the French national team. (It should be noted that the French team was not in a good place at the time and that the French media are absolutely ruthless. If word got out, it would have derailed not only Valbuena’s career but also the entire team.)

Maybe Benzema should have handled everything differently. Maybe gone to the police instead. But it’s simply not true to say that he had any role in blackmailing his teammate besides informing his teammate about what he was told when the people responsible approached him. Benzema didn’t plan it. He didn’t take part in acquiring the sex tape. Literally all he did was say, “hey, maybe you should just pay them.” The money demanded would have been pennies to Benzema. If it ludicrous to actually think that Benzema blackmailed his teammate. At most, you can say that he should have gone to police instead of Valbuena directly. But as discussed above, there are reasons he didn’t do that.

If we want to talk about the criminality of footballers without any context, let’s talk about how Messi is a dirty, tax-dodging monster who was stealing money from the Spanish people. (For the record, I don’t believe that’s the case. I’m just trying to make a point that the way people talk about the Benzema/Valbuena controversy is sensationalist and intentionally paints Benzema in a bad light.)