For Men Like Benjamin Mendy -By Zayd Ibn Isah

The protracted battle between the former France and Manchester City footballer — Benjamin Mendy, and the UK Justice System has come to an end after a jury at Chester Crown Court finally and unanimously cleared him of the multiple rape and attempted rape allegations he was charged with about two years ago.

Benjamin’s trouble with the law started between October 2018 and August 2021 when six different women accused him of sexually harassing them on different occasions at his palatial mansion in Chesire. Normally, matters of rape and other forms of violence against women are not treated with kid gloves in the Western world. It is even worse if the alleged offender is a public figure, as can be seen in the countless cases of male celebrities toppled by the global waves of the #MeToo movement and made to face the full wrath of the law.

This was the case with former footballer, Benjamin Mendy, now 28 years of age. Born in Longjumeau, France, Mendy cut his teeth as a professional footballer with Le Havre’s reserve team after coming through the club’s youth academy. He would later join Olympique Marseille where he spent three seasons before moving on to AS Monaco. It was at AS Monaco that the young Mendy garnered a reputation as one of the world’s best defenders, prompting Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City to splash £52 million on him, a world-record signing fee for a defender in 2017.

Although there were high expectations for the young French left-back to replicate his form at AS Monaco, Mendy failed to match those expectations in his first English Premier League season. Perhaps, he might have improved considerably the following season, but then came the onset of shocking allegations, and soon enough, Mendy had much bigger problems than those he would have preferred on the pitch. Prior to his world-record move from AS Monaco to Manchester City, if anyone had perhaps told him that rape allegations would adversely affect his football career, Mendy might have reacted dismissively. The rest, as it is often said, is history.

Benjamin Mendy was first arrested in November 2020 after a 24-year-old girl accused him of raping her. Before then, he was charged with the attempted rape of a 29-year-old at his palatial mansion. Unsurprisingly, Mendy insisted that what had transpired with both women was nothing more than consensual sex. Subsequently, the jury found him not wanting and cleared him. But if the young footballer thought then that he would be free, one can almost visualize the shock and disappointment he felt as more women came out like termites from rotten woodwork to accuse him of rape and attempted rape. This set in motion a long-running and torturous legal battle to salvage his reputation and livelihood from the plethora of rape allegations which threatened to consume his life and career.

While Mendy was battling to prove his innocence of the allegations, the walls of his life were falling to the tunes of sadness. His club, Manchester City, stopped paying his salary and as at last month, his five-year contract ended unceremoniously. This not only means that Mendy is jobless as it stands, but also has nothing to show for the years wasted by his legal travails. If anyone in the jury had expected the Frenchman to be exuberant and triumphant upon his discharge and acquittal, Mendy must have befuddled them with his tears. And those were not tears of joy, but the sort of complex emotional release that comes from achieving a phyrric victory. The now viral video of him saying “Alhamdulillah” to the journalist who asked him for comments summarises it all. After all, what could anyone say beyond “All thanks be to God” in the unenviable situation of attaining victory but doing so at great personal cost?

If the jury had found Mendy guilty, he would no doubt have been sentenced to life imprisonment just like the musical icon known as R Kelly. The US RnB legend was sentenced to life imprisonment after the court found him guilty on charges of sex trafficking, child pornography and sexual exploitation of a minor. Away from R Kelly and back to Benjamin Mendy’s case, the embattled defender has asked to be left alone to rebuild his life, expressing a need to reflect deeply on all he had been through over the years. Apparently, Mendy was carried away by the fame and fortune which drew numerous women to him like bees to a honeycomb.

It is hard to completely blame the glorified sportsman. As a specimen of physical fitness and dexterity, he is often primed to move through life with the sort of confidence that presents the world as just an overlarge playground to him, especially one where it seems he can do just about anything and get away with it. The stories abound, and they often involve the athletes we admire indulging in wild sexual orgies or bedding attractive women far beyond our wildest reaches. In the course of Mendy’s trials, it was revealed that the Frenchman had a party animal’s lifestyle and would regularly invite numerous young women over to his mansion for sex. These revelations also exposed the seedy underbelly of an industry which caters to the insatiable indulgences of A-listers and footballers, apparently an open secret in professional circles. Simply put, there are pathways and desires which can be unlocked even in the UK, so long as one has enough money or bears a recognizable face.

Mendy’s fans and professional colleagues like Paul Pogba are glad that he has been let off the hook, and they can’t wait to see him back on the pitch. But it is sad to know that his false accusers will not face the full wrath of the law. Yet, we expect him to heal completely? Justice Chukwudifu Oputa in one of his famous judgements said, “Justice is tripartite. Justice for the victim, justice for the accused and justice for the general society whose moral ethos has been debased” If the essence of putting Mendy through this long and arduous judicial journey was to establish justice for his so-called victims, then mere discharge and acquittals for want of substantial evidence to nail him without punishing them for the incalculable damage they have done to his professional football career and his psyche is tantamount to travesty of justice.

Although one hopes that Benjamin Mendy will find ways to make the most of his life now that it more or less seems as if nothing much lies ahead of him in football. But more importantly, his travails should be more than a word of wisdom to those just like him: rich, famous and powerful men with bloated egos and even bigger desires. In Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God, a proverb states: “The man that brings ant-infested faggots into his hut should not grumble when lizards begin to pay him a visit.” Sure enough, false accusations often find their targets, and the originators of such concoctions should be made to face the full wrath of the law. After all, false alarms often ring deeper than real ones. But then, such contrivances barely mean much against the armor of self-discipline and a right-standing nature. It does not take much time to point out footballers without the sort of scandals which have made a mess of men like Mendy. Chief amongst such footballers is Lionel Messi, whose relationship with his childhood sweetheart of a wife has withstood time, fame and fortune. Imagine if the great Messi had succumbed to temptations early on in his career, sleeping around and partying and showing up late for training sessions.

For Mendy, so much has been lost, and all for senseless acts of overindulgence and indiscipline. But for men like him, men with promising futures who unfortunately bear certain demons, this pathetic fall of a man should be all the wisdom they need to set their paths straight and never risk slipping off. Beyond fleeting sensations of euphoria, there is nothing substantial to be gained from reckless indulgence and willful indiscipline. Absolutely nothing.

Zayd Ibn Isah can be reached via isahzayd@gmail.com