Patrick Assoumou Eyi, leading football coach in Gabon, accused of raping boys
A long-serving coach in Gabon is facing claims he raped, groomed and exploited young players, the Guardian can reveal.
Alleged victims claim that Patrick Assoumou Eyi – known as “Capello” – abused boys in his previous role as the head coach of Gabon’s under-17 team and in his current role as the technical director for La Ligue de l’Estuaire, the country’s highest league. One former player who was coached by Eyi said that the coach would lure alleged victims to his home, which he called the “Garden of Eden”.
Some victims have alleged that Eyi also provided boys for other figures in football to abuse.
Eyi left his role with the country’s youth sides in 2017 but continues to work with young players at La Ligue de l’Estuaire. He has not responded directly to the Guardian’s questions about the claims.
One former official at Fegafoot, Gabon’s football federation, claimed he tried to raise concerns regarding allegations of sexual abuse in relation to Eyi in a board meeting in 2019 and was dismissed from his post as a result. Fegafoot denies that claim.
Alleged victims say they have not contacted the police in Gabon because they do not have confidence in the justice system.
A complaint over the allegations of sexual abuse has been registered with Fifa by the international players union, Fifpro, which said it was deeply concerned about the allegations. “Our preliminary inquiries yielded consistent evidence from credible witnesses who all tell of an ongoing and longembedded practice of forcing young players into sexual relationships as a pre-condition for footballing opportunities. “If these allegations are indeed true, it is yet further evidence that football is being consistently exploited, across leagues and continents, as a forum for abusers to access, groom, extort and assault players. More must be done to prevent this horrific abuse and we call on football’s governing bodies to act as a matter of urgency.”
Several alleged victims have spoken to the Guardian. One alleged victim who played for Gabon’s under-17 side between 2015 and 2017 claimed he was abused several times by the coach during his career with the national team. “He forced me to have sexual relations with him,” said the player. “That was the condition to stay in the national team. At the time, I left my village in order to help my family. I was living in the capital [Libreville] and becoming a professional footballer was the only way to get out of misery. So I did what I had to do to help them.”
He added: “Capello raped so many boys. He sometimes went to the countryside to find new ones. He took advantage of poverty and also gave some boys to other officials. In our national team, the majority had to give sex. That’s the reality of Gabonese football for decades but no one can shut down the system. Predators are too numerous … we suffered hell.”
Two more alleged victims claimed Eyi abused them when they were under the age of 18 and attending an academy called Académie Club de Libreville in Akanda, a suburb of Libreville, between 2017 and 2019.
“Sometimes, he took some kids to his house, ‘Le Jardin d’Eden’,” one said. “He was very nice to me but every time I saw him he told me I was beautiful. One day, he told me that some of the players gave masturbation … he left his office with a smile. It was like he was sending me a message.”
He added: “I had some sexual experiences with Capello, I was obligated to. I quit football, you know. I tried my best for my family and now I live out of the country. I can’t go back.”
The other player added: “Capello bought kids from remote provinces or villages with a poor background in the majority. He brainwashed them and made them believe they had to give sexual favours to him. One other coach told us one day: ‘If you want to play with the under-17 national team, you know what you have to do.’”
During his playing days, Eyi was a winger who turned to coaching at an early age and developed a reputation for spotting talented young players. He has coached at several clubs as well as Gabon’s national youth teams, and took his nickname as a tribute to Fabio Capello, the Italian who managed England between 2007 and 2012.
Eyi has yet to respond directly to questions from the Guardian. However, after repeated attempts to contact him he posted a series of messages on WhatsApp Status that appeared to make reference to the allegations, including one that read: “Those who use lies as a weapon don’t know the reverse on the spiritual side.”
A statement from Fegafoot said it had “never registered any complaints relating to any act of this nature”.
“To our knowledge, [Eyi] does not have a team and is not appointed to lead any national team. The players you have met should consider also contacting us in order to diligently investigate, because we confirm that such facts must be denounced in court and to the competent judicial bodies.”
Fegafoot’s media officer, Pablo Moussodji Ngoma, made reference to the Guardian’s inquiries in a Facebook post, criticising the allegations for a “weakness of evidence”.
“The testimonies of the actor victims, with their names, can dissuade the perpetrators of these abominable acts but we must also allow the judicial bodies and even the courts to punish them,” he wrote. “The rest will be taken as one more communication operation for those who are committed to tarnishing Gabon’s image internationally.”
Gabonese football has been beset with issues in recent months, with the former Rennes winger Stéphane N’Guéma and four other former internationals having been arrested last month for protesting over the continued cancellation of the domestic leagues. N’Guéma has since stepped down from his post as the secretary general of the players’ union, whose members say they have not been paid for nearly two years.