PSG Women star Aminata Diallo is arrested for ‘hiring two men to attack and injure a club team-mate’
France and PSG Women star is arrested after she ‘paid two men to attack a team-mate with an iron bar – leaving her needing stitches – so she could take her place in the team’
PSG midfielder Kheira Hamraoui, 31, beaten up by masked men on November 4 Was left needing stitches and missed Champions League game through injury Aminata Diallo, 26, her PSG teammate and sporting rival, has now been arrestedPolice are thought to be investigating whether Dallo hired goons to beat up Hamraoui in order to steal her place in the team
A Paris Saint-Germain Women’s player has been arrested on suspicion of hiring two goons to attack her own teammate in a bid to steal her place in the squad.
Aminata Diallo, 26, was arrested early Wednesday at her home in Marly-le-Roi, near Versailles, by officers probing a November 4 attack on 31-year-old Kheira Hamraoui.
Hamraoui – a midfielder for PSG, a French international and Diallo’s direct rival – was being driven home by the younger player when two masked men stopped the car and beat her so badly with iron bars that she required stitches.
She subsequently missed a Tuesday night Champions League game against Real Madrid, with Diallo – also a midfielder and French international – taking her place. PSG won the game 4-0 and Diallo was arrested the next morning.
Police have yet to charge Diallo and are not thought to have identified the masked attackers, but are believed to be working on the theory that she wanted her teammate injured in a case of rivalry-gone-wrong.
Kheira Hamraoui, 31, (left), was left needing stitches after a brutal assault on the night of November 4 – with teammate Aminata Diallo, 26, (right) now arrested in connection with it
Police have yet to charge Diallo (left) but are thought to be working on the theory that she hired goons to attack Hamraoui (right) to take her place in the squad
Hamraoui was left needing stitches to her hands and legs after the attack, and missed a Champions League game this week
PSG has acknowledged Diallo’s arrest and confirmed that it is linked to an investigation over the assault of another of its players, but refused to comment further.
The attack happened on the evening of November 4 following a team meal that PSG held for players in Paris, a relative of Hamraoui to French magazine L’Equipe.
After the meal, Diallo offered to drive Hamraoui from the restaurant to her home in the Yvelines region, close to where he own property is located.
When the pair got close to Hamraoui’s home, two masked men stopped the car and beat her with iron bars.
The assault is thought to have lasted a few minutes, after which the men fled.
Diallo was ‘detained’ by the two men during the assault but did not suffer any injuries, a club source told AFP.
It is not clear exactly how the two men stopped the car, or how Diallo was ‘detained’.
Hamraoui was taken to hospital where she was given stitches in her legs and hands.
She was unable to take part in PSG’s Champions League game with Real Madrid on Tuesday. Diallo started the match.
Diallo has started three of PSG’s seven league games this season and has come on as a sub in the other four, while Hamraoui has started six of the seven league games, with Diallo starting the other match against Soyaux-Charente on September 12.
They both started together for the game on October 10 versus Guingamp and October 31 for the game against Dijon but in the Women’s Champions League, Hamraoui started the first two matches with Diallo on the bench but the 31-year-old missed the third game yesterday due to the injuries sustained.
The club has confirmed Diallo has been taken into custody.
Diallo (far left) started in place of the injured Hamraoui (second right) in midfield against Real Madrid on Tuesday night, a game the team won 4-0. She was arrested the next morning
Diallo was driving Hamraoui home from a team meal when her car was stopped by two masked men who beat her teammate but left her unscathed
In a club statement, PSG said: ‘Paris Saint-Germain takes note of the police custody this morning of Aminata Diallo by the Versailles DRPJ as part of the procedure opened following an assault on Thursday last night against club players.
‘Paris Saint-Germain strongly condemns the violence committed.
‘Since Thursday evening November 4, the club has taken all the necessary measures to guarantee the health, well-being and safety of its players.
‘Paris Saint-Germain is working with the Versailles SRPJ to shed light on the facts. The club is attentive to the progress of the procedure and will study the follow-up to be given to it.’
The news comes just days before PSG’s huge top of the table clash with Lyon on Sunday.
Both teams are level on 21 points after seven games. PSG ended Lyon’s 14-year reign at the top of Division 1 by winning the title last season and also knocked them out of the Champions League at the quarter-final stage. Lyon had won the European competition five years in a row.
Hamraoui joined PSG in the summer after leaving Champions League winners Barcelona.
She was re-called to the France squad after a two-year absence for their 2023 World Cup qualifying matches last month but had to withdraw due to a calf injury, with Diallo called up in her place.
However, Diallo did not feature in either of France’s games against Estonia or Kazakhstan.
