Achraf Hakimi was seen laughing and joking with teammates Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe at Paris Saint-Germain’s training ground in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, west of Paris, on the same day that he was formally indicted by judges on preliminary charges of rape. The World Cup star, who is one of the world’s highest-paid players, returned to training with PSG after being sidelined through injury. The married father of two has “strongly denied” the “false” allegations, according to his lawyer. He has not been suspended by his club and is expected to be fit for tomorrow’s league game against Nantes. PSG said in a statement that it “supports the player who has firmly denied the accusations and trusts the justice system.”
Madrid-born Hakimi is accused of raping a woman while his wife Hiba Abouk was on holiday with their children. According to Le Parisien, Hakimi had been talking to the alleged victim on Instagram since January 16. Last Saturday, he allegedly paid for an Uber to drive her to his home in a Paris suburb. She claimed he pulled up her clothes and assaulted her before she was able to free herself by kicking him then texted a friend to pick her up. The woman went to a police station on Sunday but reportedly said she did not want to press charges. Prosecutors launched an investigation due to the seriousness of the allegations.
On Monday, Morocco defender Hakimi received loud applause at a Fifa awards ceremony as he was named in a world team of the year. He became a Moroccan national hero in December after his winning penalty against Spain put Morocco through to the World Cup quarter-final for the first time. And he was credited for helping his national team reach the semi-final, the first African country to do so. Before the tournament, the A-list star – known as Morocco’s answer to David Beckham – posed with his TV star wife in a stunning photoshoot in Vogue Arabia. Today it was reported they had been estranged for weeks and she had dumped him for good following the rape allegation. The pair have not been seen together in public for months.
Now she is “accelerating” proceedings to separate for good, according to Spanish outlet Cierre Digital. She has not publicly commented, but an Instagram post shows her walking on a Dubai beach with her two young sons. She captioned it “Adding moments”, and added the hashtags “family first” and one translating as “I’d die for mine”.