Derby County winger and former England U-16 Nathaniel Mendez-Laing has been arrested along with his wife after ‘British woman who continued to take photos of them in Magaluf nightclub was punched in the face’
- The 32-year-old allegedly hit a woman in a nightclub on Saturday
Former England footballer Nathaniel Mendez-Laing (under 16) has been arrested after a woman complained that she had been attacked and her mobile phone stolen at a Magaluf nightclub.
The Derby County winger was summoned to court on Sunday following the incident the day before.
According to respected Mallorcan newspaper Ultima Hora, the 32-year-old, who was born in Birmingham but plays for the Guatemala national team, allegedly punched the woman in the face before taking her phone.
His wife, who is accused of pulling the unnamed woman’s hair, was also reportedly arrested after police obtained the mobile phone geolocator of the “assault victim” and went to their holiday home.
According to Ultima Hora, the couple was released pending an ongoing criminal investigation after posting a €300 bail.
Former England Under-16 winger Nathaniel Mendez-Laing has been arrested after a woman complained she was attacked in a Magaluf nightclub
Derby County’s Nathaniel Mendez-Laing celebrates scoring his team’s first goal of the match with team-mates during the Sky Bet League One match at Cledara Abbey Stadium in Cambridge. Date of photo: Saturday 20 April 2024
Mendez-Laing was arrested in Magaluf on Sunday. Tourists stand on a terrace in the resort of Magaluf on the Spanish Balearic island of Mallorca, Spain
The mystery woman at the centre of the bizarre incident, described locally as British, is said to have annoyed the footballer and his wife by taking photos and videos of them without their consent at the anonymous nightspot.
There has been no official comment yet from the Guardia Civil.
It is not clear whether Nathaniel, who served a three-month suspension in July 2020 after failing a drugs test for cocaine while at Cardiff City, is still in Mallorca.
Mendez-Laing helped Cardiff to promotion to the Premier League in his first season at the club, but his contract was terminated for breach of contract in September 2020, a month after he was suspended by the FA.
He admitted to taking cocaine the night before the match against Bristol City.
The FA later announced that Mendez-Laing had been given a three-month ban after testing positive for drugs, saying he had used cocaine “in a context unrelated to sporting performance”.
A statement at the time said: ‘Cocaine is classified as a prohibited substance in competition by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). As a result, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing was charged by the FA with an anti-doping rule breach and provisionally suspended on 14 August 2020.
‘Nathaniel Mendez-Laing admitted the charge but was able to explain that the substance was taken out of competition in a context unrelated to sporting performance.’
The footballer was previously suspended in 2019 for using the class A substance.
Mendez-Laing helped Cardiff to promotion to the Premier League in his first season at the club, but his contract was terminated in September 2020 for breach of contract.
Mendez-Laing was arrested after a woman complained she had been attacked in a nightclub in Magaluf (pictured is Magaluf’s nightlife area)
In a statement released by Mendez-Laing after serving the suspension in 2020, it said: ‘With the support of my family, close friends, my agent and the PFA (Professional Footballers’ Association), I have been able to overcome my personal obstacles during this extremely difficult time, focus and invest my time in hard work, determined to return to football.
‘I appreciate all the support I’ve received. I want to leave that period of my life where it belongs now.
‘I’m looking forward to the future and am happy that I can do what I love again.’
After leaving Cardiff, he played for Middlesbrough and Sheffield Wednesday before signing for Derby County in July 2022. He helped the side to promotion to the EFL Championship in his second season with the team.
He represented England at under-16 and under-17 level, but last year he started playing at international level for Guatemala.
Both his mother and maternal grandmother were born in the Central American country.
The footballer has not yet commented on social media about the incident in Magaluf.