P.S.G. Women’s team member was jailed after an attack on a teammate. A member of the Paris St.-Germain women’s soccer team was detained in France on Wednesday as part of an inquiry into an attack on one of her colleagues, who was taken from a car last week and hit in the legs by masked men carrying metal bars.
The club announced that the accused player, midfielder Aminata Diallo, was detained as part of the inquiry following an incident on its players last Thursday. P.S.G., which won its first title this year, did not elaborate on the event or identify the players who were attacked.
Diallo, 26, was arrested on Wednesday morning, one day after she replaced injured colleague Kheira Hamraoui in P.S.G.’s midfield for the club’s Champions League match against Real Madrid. Hamraoui, a 31-year-old midfielder signed from Barcelona prior to this season, did not participate; she is healing from injuries to both her legs and her hands received in the attack, which occurred after a team supper.
Diallo had offered Hamraoui a lift home after the supper. According to a person acquainted with the case, who corroborated data initially published by the sports weekly L’Equipe, the automobile was stopped by two guys while they were driving.
“Paris St.-Germain is collaborating with Versailles police to clarify the facts,” the team said in a statement. “The club is closely monitoring the events and will consider what action to take.”
The event and the claims brought up memories of the 1994 attack on figure skater Nancy Kerrigan, who was attacked at that year’s United States finals in a scheme hatched by a rival skater’s ex-husband, Tonya Harding. After a practise session, Kerrigan was assaulted by a guy who slapped her in the legs repeatedly with a police baton.
After Kerrigan was forced to withdraw from the championships due to injury, Harding won the competition to earn a spot on the United States Olympic squad in 1994. Kerrigan was subsequently nominated to the squad despite failing to qualify, and she went on to win a silver medal at the Lillehammer Games a few weeks later. Harding, who has long denied involvement in the incident but pleaded guilty to obstructing prosecution, finished eighth.
P.S.G. Women’s team announced on Wednesday that it had offered its players with additional security in the days following the attack, an extra layer of safety that it routinely prepares for its well-known men’s players. Several P.S.G. players’ residences have been looted in recent years.
Last Thursday’s attack left Hamraoui profoundly rattled, with scratches and bruises but no broken bones in her legs.
“Since Thursday evening, the club has taken all necessary precautions to ensure the health, well-being, and safety of its whole women’s squad,” said the P.S.G.
Competition for spots on the French champion has grown since the women’s team finally broke the domination of its league and continental rival Lyon last season by winning its first French title. In the preceding ten years, P.S.G. had finished second to Lyon eight times.
The signing of Hamraoui, 31, from European champion Barcelona for a second spell with P.S.G. Women’s team was part of the club’s efforts to bolster its position in the face of the club’s continuous domestic rivalry with Lyon. The two clubs are tied at the top of the French league, having won all seven of their games this season.
Diallo had returned from a loan spell with Atlético Madrid and had been effectively deployed as Hamraoui’s understudy. Hamraoui, a former France international, representing her country at the 2015 Women’s World Cup and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
