Karim Benzema is used to seeing his name splashed all over back pages of the papers, but normally not for the reasons that he has found himself making headlines in the past few weeks.
The star has been at the centre of a blackmail case involving his team-mate in the France squad Mathieu Valbuena, and while his role was initially purported to be a minor one, a recent leak has renewed suspicion that he played a more major part in the process.
Benzema was not the only player arrested over the alleged blackmail plot, as former Liverpool striker Djibril Cissé was questioned by police but released without charge in October.
The case revolves around the attempted extortion of Valbuena over a sex tape that was apparently filmed on a mobile phone, and it was later revealed that he has spoken with Benzema about the case during a French training session.
The initial reports stated that Benzema had approached Valbuena "on behalf of a childhood friend" about the tape, and advised Valbuena what he should do in the face of a looming scandal.
However, investigators continued to look into the Real Madrid striker's role in the process, believing that there was "complicity in a blackmail attempt" on his part, according to the BBC.
On Wednesday, the case took another twist when a leaked conversation between Benzema and a man named Karim Zenati was published in L'Equipe.
In it, it is revealed that Zenati either has possession of or access to the tape that is being used to blackmail Valbuena, and Benzema's role in the process is more involved than had been previously reported.
The conversation, which was reported to have been about 20 minutes long, shows Benzema relaying the information that he gave to Valbuena about the case, and saying to Zenati that Valbuena "is not taking us seriously".
According to the transcript, Benzema also told Valbuena that there should be "no intermediary, no lawyer, no friend, no agent, no police, it’s not what you want", and that he should deal directly with his friend.
Later in the conversation, Zenati then claims that "if he doesn’t want to [deal with us], we’ll leave it, he can deal with these piranhas, he’ll face these piranhas and then…".
The "piranhas" have yet to be identified, but it seems to indicate that neither party involved in the phone conversation have the tape.
Benzema's legal team have claimed that he "took no part, I state this again — no part — in the blackmail or blackmail attempts", adding that the leaking of these files is a "violation of judicial confidentiality".
Real Madrid manager Rafael Benítez stated that "I have spoken to him but as he is not going to play I don’t want to talk too much about it. He has my total support [...] He is in good spirits", something backed up by his post on Instagram on Thursday in the wake of the damning transcript published by L'Equipe.
The timing of the case comes at a bad time for the France national team, who host the European Championships next summer with Benzema one of their world class stars and Valbuena, a valued team member, who impressed at last year's World Cup finals.
And the terms of Benzema's bail means he and Valbuena cannot come into contact which makes international training sessions together an impossibility at present. In any case, Benzema's recent injury issues mean he was not called up for the current round of international friendlies, while France manager Didier Deschamps said leaving Valbuena out was duo the attacking midfielder understandably not being "psychologically ready" at the moment.
But in the long-term, the implications for Benzema would be extremely serious if he were to be tried and then found guilty.
Aside from a fine of £75K any penalty would consist of a five year jail sentence at a time when he is in the prime of his playing career at 27.
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