Crime
Football superstar Neymar in ugly rape scandal
Brazil football player Neymar has been accused of raping a Brazilian woman in Paris, according to a Sao Paulo police report.
According to Reuters, the woman was alleging that the world-renowned sports star drunkenly assaulted her at an up-market hotel in the French capital.
The accusation was the latest blow for Neymar, who last month was stripped of the captaincy of the national team and has seen his international reputation suffer amid incidents of indiscipline.
The Globo website, which first reported the news, said a representative for Neymar declined to comment, awaiting details of the allegations.
Neymar’s father, Neymar Sr., said in a local TV interview: “If public opinion is not cleared up, and if we can’t show the truth rapidly, this will snowball.
“If we have to show Neymar’s WhatsApps and the conversations with this girl, we will, because it is clear that it was a trap.”
He added that they were living “difficult moments.” According to the police report, the unnamed woman told investigators in Sao Paulo that she met Neymar on Instagram.
She claimed he then suggested they meet in Paris, where he plays for Paris St Germain (PSG). Neymar’s assistant sent her plane tickets and on May 15 she checked in to the Hotel Sofitel Paris Arc Du Triomphe, according to her account.
The Sofitel hotel did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The woman told police that Neymar arrived at the hotel that night “apparently drunk,” and that they talked and “caressed.”
“However, at some point, Neymar became aggressive, and through violence, practised sexual intercourse against the will of the victim,” the police report says.
The woman told police she returned home to Brazil two days later without telling French police about the alleged rape.
She said this was because she was “emotionally shaken and afraid to register the facts in another country,” according to the report.
Neymar is currently in Brazil, training with the national football team ahead of this month’s Copa America.
Late last month, the country’s football federation replaced him as captain for the tournament with his PSG team mate Dani Alves.
Earlier in May, Neymar was banned for three matches by the French football authorities for hitting a fan after PSG’s French Cup final loss to Rennes.
He was also reportedly involved in a dressing room fracas with his PSG team mates. PSG did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Brazil’s football federation (CBF) also declined to comment.
Reuters