After nearly two years out of football due to multiple rape scandals, Benjamin Mendy is set to return to the game as French Ligue 1 club, Lorient decided to give him another chance.
Since 2021, the out-of-favour France international has been out of football as he was busy with legal cases ranging from attempted rape and allegedly raping multiple women in the United Kingdom.
The cases kept him in prison for months as the court refused to grant him bail even though he has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
After a series of back and forths over the rape scandal, Benjamin Mendy was found not guilty in most of the rape charges in January 2023 but had to face re-trial in two of the cases which the jurors failed to conclude on.
Earlier this month, the court found him not guilty of all the charges as he was declared a free man for the first time in almost two years.
Amidst the rape saga, the former club of the 2018 FIFA World Cup winner, Manchester City, suspended him indefinitely. Afterward, the club halted the payment of his wages making things more difficult for him.
Also, on June 30, 2023, his contract with the reigning Premier League winners expired making him clubless for the first time in his career.
Hence, the 28-year-old Benjamin Mendy cried on Friday when the court finally acquitted him of all the charges against him. But the question was whether any club was ready to give him another opportunity to continue with his football career.
Earlier today, Italian football expert Fabrizio Romano confirmed that French Ligue 1 side Lorient have signed Benjamin Mendy less than a week after he was cleared of the rape saga.
“Mendy signs until June 2025 as new Lorient left-back after he was found not guilty by Chester Crown Court“, the transfer expert tweeted on July 19.
