Legal partial victory for Benjamin Mendy: A labor court ruled in favor of the 30-year-old in the lawsuit against his former employer Manchester City. The club must now pay the Frenchman millions.
The club had suspended Mendy for almost two years from September 2021 until the end of his contract in June 2023 after rape allegations were made against him. During that time, City did not pay his defender, who now plays for French second division club FC Lorient, a salary.
After Mendy was acquitted of all charges in July 2023, the 2018 world champion had filed a lawsuit against his former club for millions, demanding the unpaid salary. It was about eleven million pounds (around 13 million euros).
City now actually has to pay a large part of it. In her ruling, the judge in charge of the case wrote: “The outcome of the decision is that Mr. Mendy is entitled to receive a large portion of his unpaid salary, though not all of it.”
For the five of the 22 months that Mendy was in custody for violating the bail conditions, City does not have to pay him anything. For the rest of the period, Mendy was “ready and willing to work,” the judge ruled. He was prevented from doing so by the FA suspension and bail conditions.
“In these circumstances, and because the contract did not allow the employer to withhold salary, he was entitled to be paid.” Mendy had stated in a witness statement that he had been promised that he would be paid after his release.
