Al-Ittihad legend, Mohamed Noor, has slammed the club’s former superstar, Karim Benzema after the Frenchman moved to Al-Hilal.
Al-Hilal and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr are battling it out for who wins the SPL title this season.
Benzema, former Ballon d’Or winner, signed with Al-Hilal on an 18-month deal as a free agent after leaving Al-Ittihad last month.
Noor, who spoke on the Our League is Different show, said Benzema did not contribute much in his first season at Al-Ittihad, but the fans still supported him.
He was very upset about how Benzema’s move happened, because the club did not get any money from the transfer since he moved without paying anything.
“When Benzema joined Al-Ittihad, he didn’t contribute much in the first season. But things started to change in the next season,” he said.
“The fans played a big role by supporting him, being there for him, chanting his name, and cheering him on. Benzema didn’t score a lot of penalties last season, but the fans kept cheering for him, being there for him and giving him support all the way until the team won both the league and cup titles.
“Is it fair for him to join the team this season and then say he doesn’t want to play with them? With all due respect, he’s not even close to being as good as Cristiano Ronaldo, and he doesn’t even deserve to be mentioned.
“If Benzema didn’t want to finish his contract with the team, the club should have gotten the money from his leaving, at least they should have received the rest of the money he was owed under his contract.
“Benzema didn’t have the right to decide to join Al-Hilal because he still had his contract. If he wanted to do that, he should have finished his contract first, and after that, he could pick whatever he wanted.
“Since he joined Al-Ittihad, I hoped Benzema would leave the Saudi League and not go to Al-Hilal like that,” he said (via Kooora.com).
Karim Benzema tried to leave Al-Ittihad during the January transfer window by looking for a new team. He did not play in their last two games before his transfer on deadline day because he could not reach an agreement with the club on a new contract.
Al-Ittihad offered the 38-year-old player, who still had six months left on his current contract, a new deal that would have basically meant he played without getting paid.
This made him and his agents upset, so he decided to leave the club and go to another place in Saudi Arabia.