Manchester City has announced that Benjamin Mendy will be released from the club when his contract expires at the end of the month.
The decision comes just days before his retrial for rape is scheduled to begin.
Mendy, 28, joined Manchester City from Monaco in 2017 for a record-breaking fee of £52 million. However, he has not played for the club in nearly two years. The footballer was first arrested in November 2020 and was later suspended by the club in August 2021 following charges of rape and sexual assault against several women.
During a five-month trial at Chester Crown Court earlier this year, Mendy maintained that all sexual encounters he had were consensual, denying the allegations made against him.
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In February, he was unanimously cleared of six counts of rape and one count of sexual assault. However, the jury was unable to reach verdicts on one count of rape and one count of attempted rape, leading to a retrial.
Mendy’s co-defendant, Louis Saha Matturie, was found not guilty of three charges of rape, but the jury was unable to reach verdicts on six other counts against him. Those charges will be retried in September.
In response to the outcome of the first trial, Manchester City released a statement stating that, due to ongoing legal matters, the club could not provide further comment at this time.