Real Madrid star Kylian Mbappe has vowed to take legal action after a Swedish prosecutor said a rape investigation had been opened against the France captain.
His lawyer, Alix Canu-Bernard, also described allegations of rape against Mbappe as “totally false” and “a slanderous rumour”.
“Kylian Mbappe was shocked to see his name linked to a Swedish rape investigation,” Canu-Bernard said on Tuesday.
The France captain, however, is “at ease” because “he has done nothing wrong”, the lawyer added.
A Swedish prosecutor said on Tuesday that a rape investigation had been opened without mentioning Mbappe, following media reports that the Real Madrid and France star was the suspect following a visit with friends to Stockholm.
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Swedish newspapers Aftonbladet and Expressen, and public broadcaster SVT all reported that 25-year-old Mbappe was the target of the investigation, following his two-day visit to the Nordic capital last week.
Mbappe’s lawyer Canu-Bernard said the player was “not aware of the extent of the media frenzy, but is completely calm and does not understand what he could be accused of”.
She said: “He is stunned to hear that it could concern him. He preferred to go to training and asked my office not to leave things as they are because it is impossible to let yourself be slandered and defamed in this way.
“This is the reason why we are going to file a complaint for libel.”
The lawyer said she could neither confirm nor deny claims in Swedish media that Mbappe was the suspect.
Canu-Bernard told AFP: “We read the press. The Stockholm prosecutor’s office issued a statement, but it does not allow us to know whether Kylian Mbappe is the target.
“I therefore have no information allowing me to confirm whether this is indeed a complaint filed against him.”
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