Benjamin Mendy is dragging his former club Manchester City over unpaid wages.
The French defender was accused of raping a 24-year-old woman in a bedroom at his home in Cheshire in October 2020. He was also charged with the attempted rape of a 29-year-old woman at his home two years earlier.
Mendy, who continually denied both charges and was found not guilty by the jury at Chester Crown Court earlier this year, saw Man City stop paying his £100,000-a-week wages in September 2021.
Now, according to Sky Sports, Mendy has opened a ‘multi-million pound claim’ against City for wages owed.
The claim is reported to have been lodged with the Employment Tribunal in recent days, with Mendy claiming ‘unauthorised deductions from wages’ while his trial was ongoing.
Mendy, who became the Premier League’s most expensive defender at the time City paid AS Monaco £52million in 2017, was due to be under contract in Manchester until June 2023.
He is now seeking the salary owed from September 2021 to June 2023 and the expiration of his contract.
Sky’s report adds that prominent sports lawyer Nick De Marco KC is acting on Mendy’s behalf.
A statement made to Sky said: ‘Nick De Marco KC (instructed by Laffer Abogados (Madrid) is acting for the former Manchester City player Benjamin Mendy in a multi-million-pound claim for unauthorised deductions from wages.
‘Manchester City FC failed to pay Mr Mendy any wages at all from September 2021, following Mr Mendy being charged with various offences all of which he was subsequently acquitted of, until the end of his contract in June 2023. The claim will come before an Employment Tribunal.’
Louis Doyle KC, for Mr Mendy, explained last month that discussions with Man City were ongoing and ‘one senses that there is going to be a positive end to the dispute’.
Meanwhile, Mr Mendy’s accountant, David Lumley, previously described the back pay as ‘in the order of nine to 10 million pounds gross’.