Valbuena 'turns the page' on Benzema sex tape scandal

Paris (AFP) – Ex-France midfielder Mathieu Valbuena said on Tuesday he has “turned the page” after the sex tape scandal involving former team-mate Karim Benzema.

On Saturday, Real Madrid’s Benzema, 34, dropped an appeal against a one-year suspended sentence, handed to him last November, for complicity in a bid to blackmail Valbuena with the video in 2015.

Benzema returned to the France fold last June following the incident but 37-year-old Valbuena last featured for his country seven years ago.

He now plays for Olympiakos after spells with Fenerbahce, Lyon and Dynamo Moscow.

“I’ve turned the page after all these years,” ex-Marseille playmaker Valbuena told RMC Sport.

“I hold no hard feelings, they were difficult moments that I managed to pick myself up from.

“I would have liked for my to career to end in another way but that’s that how it is.”

Benzema was one of five people tried over the ultimately unsuccessful attempt to blackmail Valbuena with a sexually explicit video stolen from his phone.

He was not accused of being behind the extortion attempt, but of conspiring with the suspected blackmailers by putting pressure on Valbuena to pay them off.