While a rape investigation targeting Kylian Mbappe was opened last October, the protection of the privacy of Football players raises questions. Athletes use luxury concierge services to travel in complete confidentiality, and seek to limit the risks of being questioned when they spend the evening with women.
In the heart of Paris on October 28, a major security system was deployed around the Châtelet theater. Inside was the 68th edition of the Ballon d'Or, an evening attended by the best players in the world. Outside, the fans were kept at a distance. “Would you like to approach the footballers?” asks a journalist to two young supporters. “But yes a little, to see!” one of them complains. “The least thing they do is directly posted on social networkscomforts her friend. So we see.”
Over-solicited, football stars seek to escape this exposure. Like Kilian Mbappé and his discreet getaway to Stockholm in Sweden, revealed by the local press following a rape complaint. So what strategies do they put in place to protect their privacy, and in particular, their relationships with women?
Founder of the luxury concierge service “ES Conciergerie”, Elie Sy is one of the leaders of the private lives of footballers. That day, he organized an apartment visit for a Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) striker. “What time do you finish training? he questions him. Do you think you can be in Neuilly at 2 p.m.?”. From yacht vacations to private jet trips, Elie Sy supervises footballers' travels with one obsession: confidentiality. “Last night for example, a player wanted to go to a restauranthe says. He didn't want to be seen. So I call the owner of the restaurant: so and so is going to arrive, at such and such a time, he doesn't want to be seen: please put the table for him at the back of the restaurant in the reinforcement and no one goes there.”
A discretion confirmed by one of his clients: Duckens Nazon, a French footballer who plays as an attacker in Türkiye. According to him, the slightest slip-up in private can have consequences on his career: “Me, for example, as an attacker, if I didn't score and we lost, if tomorrow someone sees me in a lounge bar, at hookah, or something like that where I'm hanging out with friends, They will say 'he doesn't care about footballhe assures.
“Whether on or off the pitch, we must be irreproachable. We have no room for error.”
At 31 years old, Elie Sy sometimes plays the role of big brother with his clients and warns them about their way of meeting women.
“Recently I was with a young soccer star who showed me his private messages on Instagram. There's a ton of girls in it.”
Elie SiLuxury concierge for footballers
“A footballer today, he doesn't look long to find a girl, he admits. So I always tell them: a girl who approaches you like that, on social networks, you have to be careful. We don't know what's behind it. We don't even know if the profile is real!”
Permanent solicitations that nightclubs also organize to attract football stars to their evenings. A Parisian nightclub employee tells us about the logistics put in place so that players are always surrounded by women : “We all know that girls are the sinews of war. So in the club, there are what we call promoters: their role is to bring back girlshe explains. That way, when we arrive in the box it’s more or less pretty. If a player finds a pretty, nice girl, he'll say to me 'go get me this or that girl, I'd like to buy her a drink'.
To approach footballers, these women sometimes have to comply with a confidentiality protocol. This is what a 23-year-old young woman, recently invited to the birthday of a Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) player, tells us. “It was a friend who invited me. She was the one who had the contact of a friend, a footballer who wanted tall girls, models, pretty girls, to spend the evening with them, she confides. For me it was the first time in my life, and at first I said to myself “they’re already taking our phone, they’re taking our ID [carte d’identité]”. I wasn't too confident. My girlfriend fortunately knew. Me, I just made friends with a [joueur]. He didn’t try to hug me, kiss me, or make any inappropriate gestures or anything.”
Unfortunately other evenings take a dramatic turn… This is what happened in Spain where FC Barcelona star, Dani Alves, was convicted of rape in a nightclub in December 2022.
Since then, it seems that the world of football is no longer quite right, particularly in the relationships of certain footballers with women. This is what worries Miguel Galan, candidate for president of the Spanish Football Federation. He presents us with a document which, according to him, is circulating among the players. “It was a famous Spanish player who now plays abroad who sent it to me. He asked me “can you advise me on this sexual consent form that footballers pass on to each other?””
This document, in English, is entitled “sexual consent form”. In other words: it is a contract between two parties who agree on the type of sexual act to be performed. They are detailed very precisely: digital penetration, or oral sex, for example. The use of contraception is mentioned. At the bottom of the page, the document must be signed by both parties as well as by a witness.
But according to Miguel Galan, this document has no value in the Spanish legal system.
“Consent is a notion that can be revoked at any time during the sexual act”
He deplores: “Unfortunately, it's too late. There is already a Spanish version of the document. I'm sure footballers have already signed it or had women sign it. I believe that players must change their software in their sentimental and especially sexual relationships.”
In France, the Federation considers that it is not its responsibility to interfere in the private lives of players. Some clubs are taking the initiative, such as Paris Saint-Germain, which trains young recruits in the dangers of social networks.
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