How much the events of the past few days have shaken the footballers of Paris Saint-Germain was also shown on Sunday on the pitch. Until then, the current champions around the German national player Sara Däbritz had not lost a game this season. But then long-term rivals Olympique Lyon scored one goal after the other, the top game ended 6: 1. And where otherwise, after such a defeat, primarily sporting deficits would have been used as an explanation, it now became clear that most of the Parisian women were finally thinking elsewhere.
Last Wednesday morning, the Versailles regional police took PSG player Aminata Diallo into custody. The club confirmed that this was done as part of a trial “opened after an attack on a player at the club last Thursday night.” Like the French sports newspaper at first L’Équipe reported that the attack victim was Diallo’s teammate Kheira Hamraoui. After a team dinner on November 4th, two masked men are said to have approached the car while driving home. One had dragged Hamraoui out of the car and hit her legs several times with an iron bar. Which suggests that the act should deliberately make them unfit for sport. Diallo is said to have been held by the other man during the attack – and was unharmed.
The police and the responsible public prosecutor Maryvonne Caillibotte initially focused on Diallo, who plays in midfield in France’s national team and at PSG such as Hamraoui. They saw a possible motive in the sporting rivalry between women, who are, however, considered friends. Diallo was in custody until Friday morning, and a man who is currently in custody was interviewed who, according to media reports, was an acquaintance of the 26-year-old Diallo. He is said to have called PSG players anonymously since October and spoken of revenge on Hamraoui after a failed relationship. The calls could be traced back to him in a Lyon prison, but he is said to have denied the threatening calls. Diallo also denied any involvement.
With the discharge of Diallo, this case has taken a new direction
After Diallo’s release, a statement from her lawyer Maître Battikh was published on her Instagram profile, stating that Diallo lamented the “completely artificial suggestion of a rivalry between her and Kheira Hamraoui that would explain why she was targeting her teammate” . This theory by no means corresponds to “the true nature of their relationship”. She would like the judicial authorities to continue the investigation quickly to prove her “complete innocence”.
On Tuesday, Battikh appeared on the TV broadcaster BFM TV. He is very happy that his client is now out of suspicion. He described her detention in police custody as “defamatory, scandalous and incoherent”, as well as the fact that suspicions were immediately directed towards her, when no charges were brought. She was very upset by all of this. A SZ request to Battikh has so far remained unanswered.
With the discharge of Diallo, this case has taken a new, spectacular turn, but it remains to be seen again whether the next supposedly hot lead of the investigators turns out to be the wrong track again in retrospect.
What does he have to do with the case? France’s ex-international and former FC Barcelona sports director, Eric Abidal, has come into the focus of the investigation.
(Photo: AFP7 / ZUMA Wire / Imago)
The full attention of the investigators now has Eric Abidal, 2006 World Cup runner-up with the French national team and a former regular at FC Barcelona. A connection to the 42-year-old could be established via a SIM card in Hamraoui’s mobile phone. As Le Monde reported that it came out that the chip was in the name of Abidal – which is a closer connection between the two in the room. Abidal worked as the sports director of FC Barcelona from 2018 to 2020, during which time Hamraoui played for the club, and in 2021 she won the triple with the Catalans. According to Le Monde PSG players have indicated that Hamraoui spoke to Abidal on the phone after the attack. L’Équipe claims to have found out that the 31-year-old asked him whether his wife could harm her. “He will be questioned soon,” Prosecutor Caillibotte is quoted as saying.
Kheira Hamraoui comments on a letter from her lawyer
at L’Équipe According to his lawyer Olivier Martin: “If Eric Abidal is summoned in the context of the investigation, he will answer all the questions that are put to him”, with his client denying his involvement with “the greatest determination”. He does not want to comment on the relationship between Abidal and Hamraoui. Meanwhile, the prosecutor did not rule out a hearing from his wife and people from Hamraoui’s environment. Caillibotte emphasized that the act could have been initiated from Abidal’s circle.
On Monday, an examining magistrate initiated a preliminary investigation against unknown persons for a “criminal organization preparing and carrying out a serious and criminal offense with at least five years in prison”. On Tuesday, Hamraoui’s lawyer Saïd Harir spoke through AFP. The player had “suffered considerable physical and psychological damage”. Hamraoui wrote a letter from the attorney asking that her “private life and her decision to remain silent during this difficult investigation be respected.”