Chester (United Kingdom) (AFP)

Accused of several rapes, French footballer Benjamin Mendy, world champion in 2018, will be tried from January 24, 2022, the British justice announced on Friday, which maintains him in pre-trial detention.

Still subject to change, this date was set at the end of a hearing in a court of Chester, in the north-west of England, where the French international Manchester City spoke only to state its identity.

The court of Chester (England), where will be tried from January 24, 2022, the French defender of Manchester City, Benjamin Mendy, accused of several rapes Paul Currie AFP / Archives

Wearing a cream-colored tracksuit, Benjamin Mendy, 27, listened with folded arms to the remarks made at the hearing, which were translated into French by an interpreter.

He was kept in custody after the 45-minute hearing, mostly devoted to technical matters, and winked at a man in the audience as he left the room.

A new hearing is scheduled for November 15, in which left-back lawyer Eleanor Laws said she could ask for the charges to be dropped.

Benjamin Mendy, who has yet to plead guilty or not guilty, was remanded in late August at HMP Altcourse prison in Liverpool.

His club, where he has been playing since 2017, had suspended him a few minutes before the police announced his referral to justice.

He is charged with three rapes in October 2020 and one rape in August 2021, at his home in Prestbury, Cheshire.

He is also accused of sexual assault on a woman, also at his home, at the beginning of last January.

The alleged assaults concern three women, including a minor.

- Lamborghini seized -

To recruit Mendy, revealed in Marseille and spent a season by Monaco, City had spent 52 million pounds (about 60 million euros), making at the time of the young French left-back the most expensive defender in history.

Manchester City French defender Benjamin Mendy during the Premier League home match against Swansea on April 22, 2018 at the Etihad Stadium Paul ELLIS AFP / Archives

But his career has since been punctuated by injuries, like his cruciate ligament rupture in 2017, forcing Mendy to spend more time treating his knees and muscle ailments than kicking a ball.

The French international had also made the cabbage of the tabloids in the fall of 2020 when his Lamborghini was seized, worth more than 500,000 euros, which he was driving without a license or insurance.

He had pleaded guilty and was fined just over 1,000 euros.

Manchester City defender Benjamin Mendy of France before the League Cup semi-final first leg against Manchester United on January 6, 2021 at Old Trafford stadium Shaun Botterill POOL / AFP / Archives

Also indicted in connection with the investigation, a second man, Louis Saha Matturie, 40, appeared alongside the French champion and burst into tears before returning to detention.

Originally from Eccles, near Manchester (north-west), he is charged with four rapes committed on three people between April and August.

His links with Benjamin Mendy have not been specified.

The tabloid The Sun presents him as an assistant.

These accusations of rape against football players are not a first, especially in England.

But keeping a leading player in pre-trial detention for such a long period is extremely rare.

British justice revoked Benjamin Mendy's conditional release regime in August, accusing him, according to British media, of not having respected his judicial review imposed in the investigation into the alleged rapes of 2020.

© 2021 AFP