Manchester City defender Benjamin Mendy was charged with a new rape charge during his appearance before a British court on Wednesday, bringing the number of rape charges against him to seven against four women.
And before Mendy, sexual scandals ended the career of many players in the world of football, and dropped them into an abyss that made them “outcasts” in society as a whole, after they were stars followed by thousands with passion and admiration, while they played their favorite game.
Here are the most prominent players whose lives ended on and off the field due to various sexual scandals, ranging from a relationship with an underage girl, to a rape charge, and child pornography.
Benjamin Mendy
The French defender was known for his humor and for his funny posts with his colleagues in Manchester City, but that cheerful image that made him the darling of the Manchester City fans, turned into a dark voice of a rapist “monster”.
British police accused Mendy of committing three rapes in October 2020, and a fourth rape in August 2021, at his home in Prestbury, Cheshire, before adding two additional charges on November 17, and one on Wednesday.
Mendy was arrested and placed in pretrial detention in late August. And his club, Manchester City, who has been defending his colors since 2017, announced his suspension a few minutes before the police announced that he would be referred to justice.
Gilfi Sigurdsson
Icelandic playmaker Sigurdsson was one of the stars of the English club Everton, until the beginning of this season, when a strange story emerged related to his “sexual perversion”.
Manchester Police have opened an investigation into Sigurdsson’s involvement in child sexual crimes, which prompted his club to suspend him from playing until the investigation is over, while the player has completely disappeared.
Marlon King
Former Birmingham striker, Marlon King, was jailed in 2009 for 18 months after being found guilty of molesting a woman and breaking her nose.
And the media outcry against King increased, when details of the incident were revealed, which took place during a party on the occasion of “his wife’s pregnancy” in a bar with friends.
Chad Evans
Former Sheffield United striker Chad Evans has been accused of raping a 19-year-old drunk girl. After being sentenced to five years in prison, Evans was released in 2014 and returned to football in the lower leagues.
Later, the court found him not guilty of rape, only to find that his life was “shattered” by a false allegation.
Adam Johnson
Johnson’s case is perhaps the most famous case of the Premier League era, and he is now still in prison after three years in prison.
Johnson was convicted of underage sex crimes after having sex with a 15-year-old female fan in 2016, and his scandal is still considered among the worst in the history of football sex scandals.
Benzema and Ribery
In 2014, a Paris court acquitted Franck Ribery and Karim Benzema, two of France’s biggest football stars, of having sex with an underage prostitute.
However, both Ribery and Benzema denied the accusation, but Ribery admitted to having sex with 18-year-old Zahia Dahar, but claimed that he did not pay an amount of money and did not know that she was a minor, while Benzema denied all the allegations.
The story did not end the players’ career, but it greatly affected their reputation, and contributed to the removal of Benzema from the national team later, after his involvement in another story.
Christoph Metzelder
German defender Metzelder has a special place with the German national team, and he is like Real Madrid, but he tarnished his reputation after being accused of sharing child pornography.
Metzelder’s career in the world of sports media also ended, and he became notorious in Germany, after he was a national hero.
Amr Warda
Among the most prominent Arab stars who distorted their image with a moral scandal, the Egyptian international star Amr Warda, whose story spread a lot years ago.
A Greek press report revealed that Warda, a player for the Greek team PAOK, molested a journalist named Demi Stamatilla She works as a reporter covering the club’s news Greek Olympiacos.
This incident is added to many similar incidents that were associated with Warda, and caused many crises with the clubs he played for, as well as with Egypt national team When a conversation was leaked with one of the girls while he was with the “Pharaohs” team in matches African Nations Cup year 2019.
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