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Manchester City Football Club completed one of the most remarkable seasons in European club football history in 2022-23.
But left back Benjamin Mendy was not around to enjoy any of it.
Man City purchased Mendy from French club AS Monaco for a then-world record transfer fee for a defender of £52 million.
But Mendy has dealt with injuries and consistency issues ever since joining the Citizens. He played in just 23 matches combined in his first two season. While he then got more healthy, he fell out of favor with manager Pep Guardiola and didn’t play more 30 games in either of the next two season.
Then something weird happened.
Mendy played just two games in the first part of 2021-22 season despite being fully healthy. It was later revealed that he was the subject of investigation into the alleged of rape of a 24-year-old woman at his £4m mansion in October 2020.
He is also accused of the attempted rape of another woman. The second accuser, who was 29 at the time, says Mendy raped her two years prior.
Mendy previously stood trial on the same charges. But jurors could not reach a verdict, thus he is facing a retrial.
The judge in the new case warned the new jurors “not to look up details of the past trial or follow coverage in the media, and only decide the case on the evidence heard in court in the current trial,” according to BBC.com.
The prosecutor in the case, Mr. Benjamin Aina, spoke with the jury on Thursday for his opening. He recounted details of the alleged rape and said that Mendy told one of the women “it’s fine. I’ve had sex with 10,000 women.”
Beyond the alleged details being nothing short of abhorrent, his claim seems dubious at best.
In order for him to be correct, Mendy, who was 26 at the time of the alleged incident, would have had to sleep with around three women a day each day from his 16th birthday on.
Mendy told police on both occasions any sexual contact was consensual and denies any wrongdoing.