“Because of alcohol, I have memory problems”, “the worst mistake of my life”: the descent into hell of former France team player Wissam Ben Yedder

“Mr. Ben Yedder considered that (the victim) was a piece of meat and that he could help himself”declared the prosecutor, denouncing the explanations “muddy” of the 34-year-old player, second top scorer in the history of AS Monaco. “I don’t remember anything, I can’t say if I did it. It’s because of alcohol that I’m here.”Ben Yedder said in a weak voice, dressed entirely in black. “I sincerely ask for forgiveness from (the victim), from his family, from my family.”

Recognizing that the victim had certainly had a very bad evening, Me Marie Roumiantseva, the player’s lawyer, however assured that the sexual assault was not characterized and that it was not possible to condemn “only because the complainant seems credible.” The defense also spoke of the player’s struggles over the past two years and the “electroshock” of this affair, which pushed him to join Alcoholics Anonymous and to undergo a two-week detoxification treatment at Nice University Hospital. Without a club since the expiration of his contract with Monaco in June, he hopes to join an extensive fitness program, while he has received offers from “several European clubs” for January.

On the evening of September 6, Wissam Ben Yedder was drinking in his car in a parking lot near a beach below his home in Cap d’Ail, on the outskirts of Monaco. There, he made friends with a group of young people, three boys who knew him as a player and two more suspicious girls. He alternated kindness and aggression, said the victim, aged 23, who may have ended up accepting, “out of fear“, to get into the player’s car, who drove her against her will into the parking lot of her residence.

“Stop thinking”

There, after pushing the baby seat of his two-year-old child, he caressed the thigh of the young woman, who pushed him away, then masturbated with one hand while trying to attract him with the other. . to kiss him. Initially paralyzed, the victim managed after a few minutes to open the car door and escape. “I am no longer the same person”she testified, in tears. “I was a happy girl who made stupid jokes, and now I don’t trust anymore, I have nightmares, I don’t sleep anymore, I don’t work anymore…”

On the evening of the incident, a passerby walked her towards her friends in the parking lot and she called the police. There, Ben Yedder returned, but he did not stop despite the orders of the gendarmes, who finally found him shortly after in front of his home, with a blood alcohol level of 0.76 mg/l of exhaled air. , or 1.52 g/l of blood.

“Alcohol made me forget, it helped me stop thinking (…). I realize that it was the worst mistake of my life”he explained on the stand.

Over the past two years, Ben Yedder “was betrayed by his former agent, he was defrauded by his financial manager and he saw his marriage break up“, argued his other lawyer, Me Hasna Louzé.

But it also leads to legal problems. Sentenced in Spain for tax evasion, he is due to be tried on December 27 for psychological violence against his wife, and he was indicted for violations last summer. He was therefore already under judicial control but “he didn’t tell himself that he had to be careful, he took a total stranger in his car, out of sight”denounced the prosecutor.