Benzema victim of robbery at home during Real Madrid game

January 23, 2022 Real Madrid's Karim Benzema in action with Elche's Diego Gonzalez REUTERS

Real Madrid's France striker Karim Benzema was the victim of a robbery at his home while he was playing against Elche at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium on Sunday, police said on Monday.

The police said the incident took place between 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. local time at the player's empty home in the Madrid suburb of San Sebastian de los Reyes before Benzema and his family returned from Real's 2-2 LaLiga draw against Elche.

The police added that they were investigating whether the incident was connected with the February 2019 robbery Benzema suffered at his home during a match against Barcelona.

There was no information about the value of items stolen.

This was not the first such incident affecting players in Europe. In December, Manchester City and Benfica defenders Joao Cancelo nL4N2TG09H and Nicolas Otamendi nL1N2SY2ME respectively were assaulted during robberies at their homes in England and Portugal.

In Spain, Gerard Pique and Ansu Fati have been victims of robberies at their homes during Barcelona games.