and are among the footballers to have offered their support to Benjamin Mendy after the former player was found not guilty of rape and attempted rape.
Mendy, whose contract at City expired on 1 July, broke down in tears as not guilty verdicts were read out on Friday afternoon.
The 28-year-old was found
It comes after he was cleared of six rapes at an earlier trial in January.
Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba, a former international teammate, posted an image of a smiling Mendy on a video call on Instagram, calling for the footballer’s name to be ‘cleaned’ following Friday’s verdict.
Alongside the image, Pogba wrote: “Al Hamdulilah [praise be to God in Arabic].
‘So happy for you bro…all the people that was talking bad about you now I wanna see them cleaning your name.
‘Can’t wait to see you on the pitch again.’
Atletico Madrid forward Memphis Depay also shared his support in a lengthy message with Rio Ferdinand, Jack Grealish, Antonio Rudiger and Marcos Alonso among the many applauding his words.
He wrote across his social media channels: ‘All cases dismissed. So what are we doing now?
‘Who is going to help this brother heal?
‘Who’s going to be Responsible for the damage on he’s name? How he’s going to have he’s career back?
‘Many years of investment to become a professional football player…. Now what!?
‘I’ve never touched on this subject because I didn’t know all the details, but I’ve spoken to him once true FaceTime while behind bars and faced him on the pitch a couple times.. I didn’t see any evil in the man.
‘We can’t accept this to happen to us as athletes.
‘Who’s going to stand up for us in the time of need not when the damage is already done? Don’t turn your head people.’
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