Messi and Benzema, Saudis and Soccer, Bread and Circuses
The New York Times Soccer is the ultimate prize in Saudi Arabias push in sports. Karim Benzemas signing offered a glimpse of the price tag. Lionel Messis rejection showed its limits.
Two things stood out about Karim Benzemas arrival in Jeddah on Wednesday evening. The first was the look on his face. From the second his private jet touched down at King Abdulaziz International Airport to the moment an unspecified but apparently inordinate time later that he finally made it out into the Saudi Arabian night, Benzema looked distinctly baffled.
Perhaps it was just the effect of the long flight, or the lingering impact of what must have been a whirlwind few days, or the fact that people were talking to him in French, English, Spanish and Arabic, only three of which he actually speaks. His smile did not waver, but nor did the slight hint of confusion in his eyes.
It was there as he was hustled through the bright, echoing halls of the arrivals terminal, as he was seated in an ornate chair in some sort of conference room, fiddling with the yellow-and-black Al-Ittihad scarf that had been placed around his neck, as he was presented with two smiling, but wholly unidentified, children. Throughout, Benzema had the countenance of a man who had been recently startled.
