France international Wissam Ben Yedder has been ordered to appear in court – after being accused of sexually assaulting a woman while drunk.
The striker, 34, is a free agent after leaving Monaco during the summer.
He was reportedly arrested in the early hours of Saturday at Cap-d’Ail, near Monaco, after a 23-year-old woman told cops he had assaulted her in his car.
French paper L’Equipe claimed armed police seized a drunken Ben Yedder at the wheel after he initially refused to stop for them.
The 19-cap player must now appear in court on October 15.
Prosecutors have called for him to be kept in custody until then after he was initially released under conditions.
Nice prosecutor Damien Martinelli said: “Pre-trial detention appears to be the only way to prevent any risk of [Ben Yedder] putting pressure on the victim.
“To prevent a repeat of the deeds – he’s under legal supervision for rape after all – and to ensure that he remains available to the legal system given there’s a real chance he might escape.”
Ben Yedder has meanwhile been ordered to not contact his alleged victim, stay out of bars and nightclubs, report to police twice a week and not leave his home Alpes-Maritimes region.
The former Toulouse and Sevilla striker’s lawyer Hasna Louze declined to comment.
Ben Yedder is already at the centre of a police enquiry after he and his brother were accused of raping and sexually assaulting two women in 2021.
The Paris-born footballer was also fined and given a suspended jail term for tax offences last year.
