‘It was a set up’ – Footballer, Neymar reacts to rape allegations against him

The Brazilian football star, Neymar, has strongly denied an accusation that he raped a woman in Paris.  

According to a police report filed in São Paulo, the woman alleges that the attack took place in a hotel in the French capital, where Neymar plays for Paris St-Germain (PSG).

According to police documents, the woman who has not been named got to know Neymar on Instagram and he suggested they meet in Paris. He provided her with an air ticket from Brazil to France and a reservation at the Hotel Sofitel Paris Arc Du Triomphe.  

When Neymar came to the hotel on May 15th, he was “apparently drunk,” the woman alleges. After conversation and embraces, “at some point, Neymar became aggressive, and through violence, engaged in sexual intercourse against the will of the victim,” the police document states.  

The woman returned to Brazil two days later, without reporting the alleged incident to French police, because she was “emotionally shaken and afraid to register the facts in another country,” the document continues.

In a statement released after the accusations became public, Neymar’s management said: “We completely repudiate the unjust accusations and, above all, the exposure in the press of an extremely negative situation.”  

The footballer’s father, Neymar dos Santos, told Band TV in Brazil on Saturday that “it is clear that it was a trap. If public opinion is not cleared up, and if we can’t show the truth rapidly, this will snowball. If we have to show Neymar’s WhatsApps and the conversations with this girl, we will”.