Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
BOSS PEP: MENDY’S A REALLY GOOD BOY
City manager praises player at rape trial
MANCHESTER City boss Pep Guardiola yesterday told Benjamin Mendy’s rape trial the footballer was a good and generous squad member.
Spaniard Mr Guardiola, 51, was called as a character witness for Mendy, who faces a string of sex crime allegations including seven rapes.
Mendy’s barrister Eleanor Laws KC asked him to describe the £52million defender’s personality.
He said: “He’s a really good boy, always generous. I think he was happy when we were together in the locker room.
“He’s a generous boy. He adapted very quickly to the team and I would say he was happy to be helping others.
“He is a funny boy and I would say on the training pitch or in the locker room are the places he was happiest most.” Mr
Guardiola said he was an exceptional player and liked by the rest of the team.
Appearing via video link from “somewhere abroad”, Mr Guardiola told Chester crown court he had been asked by Mendy to support him.
Ms Laws asked him if Mendy was “a young man who enjoyed his social life”.
Mr Guardiola said: “I control my players when we are together in training sessions. In their private life, I don’t know what they do.”
Mr Guardiola said he would notice immediately if there
COURT were problems with any of his players in training.
He said he was told Mendy broke Covid lockdown rules with parties at his mansion in Prestbury, Cheshire. Mr Guardiola added: “Of course, I’m not happy. We talk about that and he accepted he didn’t do the right thing.” Mendy, 28, denies seven counts of rape, one attempted rape and one sexual assault. His co-accused Louis Saha Matturie, 41, of Eccles, Manchester, denies six rapes and three sexual assaults. The jury is expected to start deliberating in two weeks. The trial continues.