Greek police treated Harry Maguire ‘like just another drunk Brit’

Greek police have said they treated Harry Maguire ‘like just another drunk Brit’ after the Manchester United captain claimed that plain clothes officers refused to identify themselves during his arrest.

The £85 million centre-half, 27, was last week found guilty of assaulting police and attempted bribery after officers arrived to break up a brawl outside a bar on the island of Mykonos.

Maguire told the BBC in an explosive interview last week that he was defending his sister Daisy, 20, from two Albanian men who injected her with a drug.

He said he thought he was being kidnapped by fake police and tried to run away ‘in fear for his life’ when the officers arrived.

But one of the officers has poured scorn on the story told by the £190,000-per-week England player, telling The Sun: ‘We didn’t treat him differently to other drunk British guys. This was just a drunk guy getting in a fight. We deal with it a lot. But it has turned into something else with everything he says. 

Maguire told the BBC in an explosive interview last week that he was defending his sister Daisy, 20, from two Albanian men who injected her with a drug

Harry Maguire, 27, claims the fight had broken out after his sister Daisy, 20, (pictured) was drugged 

‘Why would eight police surround him and not identify themselves? We’d lose our jobs.’  

It comes just days after Maguire sat down for his first interview since he was handed the 21-month suspended prison sentence.

The England defender announced on Wednesday that he is appealing the decision made against him in a court on the island of Syros and now faces a retrial.

Maguire, who asked the BBC to keep his current location secret, vowed to fight to clear his name and declared: ‘I’m really confident the truth will be told.’ 

A shaken Maguire said: ‘My initial thought was that we are being kidnapped. We got on our knees and put our hands in the air and then they just started hitting us in the legs saying my career’s over, no more football, you won’t play again. 

In this Saturday, Aug. 22, 2020 file photo, England soccer player Harry Maguire leaves a court building on the Aegean island of Syros, Greece 

Manchester United player Harry Maguire’s father, Alan, background center, leaves a court building with two other men after his son, , was found guilty of assault and attempting to bribe a police officer, on the Aegean island of Syros, Greece, on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020

‘And at this point I thought there was no chance these are police, I don’t know who they are, so I tried to run away, I feared for my life.’ 

 The England star insisted he hadn’t done anything wrong and didn’t owe an apology ‘to anybody’, after the Greek prosecutor called for one. 

Maguire said: ‘I don’t feel like I owe an apology to anybody, an apology is for when you’ve done something wrong.

‘I regret being in the situation. Obviously the situation’s made it difficult, I play for one of the biggest clubs in the world so I regret putting the fans and the club through this.’

The world’s most expensive defender also denied claims he bribed police officers calling the statement read out in court ‘ridiculous’.  

Maguire was asked by the BBC’s Dan Roan if he accepted that he was asking for trouble by going to a busy bar on the popular tourist island.  

He said: ‘No it could have happened anywhere. I love Greece. I think footballers get a bit of stick for trying to stay away from everything, but its’ not how I want to live my life.’  

The football star – who has been dropped from Gareth Southgate’s England squad – described what it was like spending two nights in custody.

He said: ‘It was horrible it’s nothing I ever want to do again, I don’t wish it on anybody. Its the first time I’ve ever been inside a prison.’