A France national team player is under suspicion for soliciting an under-age prostitute as part of a preliminary investigation opened by Paris prosecutors. Prosecutors' office spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre told The Associated Press on Wednesday that "an international player'' is under suspicion after a year-old girl was arrested for shoplifting and his name appeared on her mobile phone records.
A minor was arrested a few weeks ago, for shoplifting, and her mobile phone was examined,'' Thibault-Lecuivre said. She confirmed that the player concerned "is an international player'' for France without giving further details. This has got nothing to do with the France team anyway,'' he told RTL radio. That said, this belongs in the private domain. Three years ago, preliminary charges were filed against France internationals Franck Ribery and Karim Benzema for soliciting an underage prostitute - the latest setback for a national team that had returned from the World Cup in disgrace and disarray.
Ribery and Benzema were questioned as part of a probe into a suspected network of prostitutes that operated out of a nightclub on Paris' glitzy Champs-Elysees. The scandal, which broke before the World Cup began on June 11, made front-page news in France and included allegations by a self-described escort girl, Zahia Deharm, who says Ribery flew her to visit him as a birthday present to himself when she was still under Deharm has always maintained that she told both players she was an adult and of legal age and that they did not know she was a minor.
Those events caused an outcry in France, with politicians harshly criticizing the players' attitude, legislators in parliament questioning the coach and even President Nicolas Sarkozy weighing in on the athletic debacle. The behavior of national team players has been heavily scrutinized in France - even all the way up to government level - since a training ground strike at the World Cup in South Africa.
The squad refused to train in protest at Nicolas Anelka being sent home from the squad for insulting then-coach Raymond Domenech. Former captain Patrice Evra and Ribery were suspended for five and three games, respectively.
