HomeFast & FuriousFAR FROM ROLE MODELS

FAR FROM ROLE MODELS

By Ratul Ghosh

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Jerome Boateng, Yves Bissouma, Benjamin Mendy

Brighton & Hove Albion midfielder Yves Bissouma has been arrested today after suspicions of sexual assault at a seafront club in Brighton. The Mali international is the latest name in a growing list of footballers who have been accused and/or arrested over the past weeks and months.

 

 

It is a depressingly familiar tale of people whom the fans of all ages look up to for their exploits on the field turning out in this manner. FootTheBall runs down the five players who had the similar misdemeanors against them found out just this year. 

 

BENJAMIN MENDY

This was the news dominating the English game specifically and the broader European football in general. Mendy had been arrested by Cheshire Constabulary in August on four counts of rape and one count of sexual assault against two women and a teenage girl.

 

 

The earliest of the said offences are reported to have taken place in October 2020. This raised serious questions regarding what Manchester City actually knew about the incidents back then as they had allowed the left-back to continue playing.

 

 

Mendy has been refused bail already and remains in custody till at least November when his next hearing is set to take place with the trial being set for January 24, 2022. 

 

GYLFI SIGURDSSON 

The Icelandic international was arrested in July for child sex offences and though British media has made no mention of his name due to legal reasons, a lot of things point to this being Sigurdsson.

 

 

Firstly, Everton also confirmed that they had suspended a “first-team player” pending police investigation who is 31-years-old as stated in the arresting report. Sigurdsson is of the same age and has already been named in the Icelandic media as being the culprit, having since been released on bail.

 

 

Furthermore, the entire board of Iceland’s football federation resigned in September after it emerged that they had not taken sexual abuse complaints against Kolbein Sigthorsson which caused a national furore. 

 

JEROME BOATENG

The 33-year-old was found guilty of domestic violence against his former partner and mother of his children Sherin Senler in September. He was ordered to pay 2.1m dollars by the Munich District Court after it was found that he had beat her in 2018 while the pair were in the Caribbean.

 

 

Though the whole relationship between the two was deemed mutually toxic and violent, this was not Boateng’s first brush with controversy in his personal life. In February of this year, he had a very public falling out with then-girlfriend Kasia Lenhardt after their troubles had already become imminent for some time.

 

 

Just one week after the breakup, Lenhardt was found dead in an apartment in Berlin, possibly due to suicide, with Boateng leaving Bayern Munich for personal reasons around the same time. 

 

RYAN GIGGS

The former Manchester United stalwart and Welsh icon is no stranger to being in the middle of controversies. Giggs is infamous for having had an eight-year-long affair with his brother’s wife which caused his family to sever all ties with him and was in the media for a long, long time.

 

 

He also had an extra-marital affair with model Imogen Thomas that was one the basis of a gagging order storm in the UK and dragged from Parliament to the courts in 2011.

More recently, he was arrested for having assaulted his then-girlfriend Kate Grenville and a second person on the same evening in November 2020. That came when he was manager of Wales and Giggs was once again charged in April of this year of bodily harm and common assault against two women.

 

 

He denied all the charges but needless to say, was replaced as head coach of Wales and remains one of the most unsavoury characters in football due to his off-field antics. 

 

YVES BISSOUMA

The defensive midfielder has been one of the standout players in his position for the past couple of seasons and has regularly drawn attention from bigger clubs. However, his arrest in the early hours of Thursday throws serious doubt on his participation for the near future with Brighton and even in the Premier League though he has been granted bail.

 

 

Neither his club nor the Premier League have made any comments regarding this, which is not too surprising given some of the previous instances of such cases in football have been dealt with. No doubt there will be more information and clarity on this as the days go by and certainly, Bissouma will not be the last footballer to have done something like this. 

Ratul Ghosh
His name means Red and a fan of devilish food, which equals to his favourite team being Manchester United. Can be found sleeping or in front of the TV otherwise. Hates waking up early but loves staying up late for football.

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