16 July 2023 , 05:00
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“It’s like I was on the train, I was going fast and I just kept going until I went to prison.”
Those were the words of Benjamin Mendy, spoken during his third day on the witness stand in his first trial, summing up a party lifestyle that led to him standing accused of nine different sex offences.
He went on to describe that he had learned lessons during his 134 days on remand after being charged by police in September 2021, lessons that his behaviour towards women “was not OK” even if, he insisted, any sexual intercourse that took place with the complainants was consensual.
The retrial jury heard Mendy “at the time did not care” about a complainant becoming upset at his Cheshire home and the prosecution alleged that he “does not take no for an answer. What he wants, he gets."
Mendy reacts as he leaves Chester Crown Court (AFP via Getty Images)Mendy told the first trial that he was aware that “he was no Brad Pitt” but, as he boasted to one complainant, he had slept with 10,000 women while acknowledging that most of the attention received was down to his high-profile status as a World Cup winner and three-time Premier League champion.
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The 28-year-old’s barrister, Eleanor Laws KC, told the court during her closing speech in the first trial that Mendy’s “life as he knew it is over” and he “will never escape these accusations.” Second time around, Ms Laws KC said there were “myriad… lies and inconsistencies” in the testimonies of the remaining two complainants” but the initial point remained.
Seven months have passed since he was acquitted of seven charges by a jury of seven men and four women at Chester Crown Court and in the same building he was found not guilty of the two remaining charges on Friday.
So what now for a footballer who last meaningfully kicked a ball 23 months ago and as of July 1 is a free agent following the expiration of his contract at Manchester City?
If he does return to English football, Laws’ claim that he “will never escape” the allegations will be examined by how rival supporters react to his mere presence on a pitch.
The Frenchman's contract expired at the start of the month (Getty Images)History indicates that ruthless, packed stadiums are not comfortable environments for players carrying baggage – irrespective of court acquittals.
A World Cup winner with France in 2018 who lifted the Premier League three times at City despite never playing more than half their games in a season, there was a perception that Mendy was among the most fortunate players in the game. At least when it came to silverware weighed up against playing time.
But from his early days at Le Havre, via Marseille, Monaco and then on to City, there was a common feeling among coaches and team-mates that he lacked focus and concentration, one eye too often distracted by life being one big party.
It was even there as a young child in a story that his mother, Monique, told regularly as her son rose through the ranks.
When Mendy was seven years old, already showing plenty of promise on the pitch, he was hit by a car when following his football on to a road. He was given a fright but the car was moving slowly enough to ensure nothing more than a bruised ego.
Yet as Le Parisien put it in a very early profile of him, Monique already knew that her son had his tête en l'air . His head was in the clouds.
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Marcelo Bielsa, the former Leeds head coach who worked with Mendy at Marseille, once admonished him for falling asleep during a team meeting to discuss tactics.
The defender was once caught sleeping during a team meeting with Marseille“Later he said to me, ‘If you sleep, it’s good. One day you’re going to open your head and listen. You’re going to be aware of everything,’” Mendy told Four Four Two in 2020. “I saw, I learned and I asked him questions – it helped me a lot.”
But the undisciplined streak did not disappear as he swapped Marseille for Monaco, even if he shone enough on the pitch to command the attention of City.
Upon arriving in Manchester in the summer of 2017, for a fee of more than £50m, supporters quickly realised that Mendy was fond of a joke. His Twitter account became a banter magnet, with his playful jabs at competitors and team-mates fused with jokes at the expense of followers and even himself. Most of it was accompanied by a shark emoji.
“He’s a really good boy, I would say so generous,” Guardiola told the first trial. And yet prosecutors described him as a “predatory, serial rapist” who is “living in an unreal world.”
Not, however, in the eyes of the seven men and four women (the 12th juror was excused for personal reasons) who returned not guilty verdicts for all but two charges in January and the six men and six women who decided he was not guilty on the remaining counts on Friday.
On the stand in the retrial, he spoke of “bantering” and “flirting” with one woman – by “joking” that he would “kidnap her” while she was seeing one of his friends – and openly admitted that he had no interest in seeing many of the women he slept with again.
It was as if life was one big game but he stressed that he “would never force” a woman to have sex with him. Two separate juries agreed.