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This will be a movie someday.
The plot is known. Two teammates compete for the same position. One was brutally attacked and beaten, the other accused of planning it.
This isn’t the story of Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan, the two American figure skaters of the 1990s, but the similarities are striking.
Paris Saint-Germain will face Chelsea in the Champions League on Thursday. It will be their biggest game of the season so far. Somehow, despite a turbulent 11-month absence, the team continues to function on the field.
On November 4 last year, two masked men attacked Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Kheira Hamraoui with an iron bar. They aimed directly at her legs. The seizure, which lasted a few minutes, required stitches. She also suffered major bruises, but, amazingly, she had no broken bones.
Hamraoui had attended a team-bonding meal with her PSG teammates. She left the restaurant with Sakina Karchaoui and Aminata Diallo, who both drove home. Karchaoui, who lived further away, was the first to be dropped off. Diallo walked on to Hamraoui’s apartment. When she stopped, two men emerged from a white van and dragged Hamraoui out of the car.
Diallo, who was unharmed, was arrested on November 10 on suspicion of organizing the attack. Diallo and Hamraoui, both central midfielders, directly competed for the same place in both the PSG and the French national team.
The incredible, yet sad story of two former teammates Kheira Hamraoui (right) and Aminata Diallo (left) will one day make it onto the big screen
Parallels were drawn with the Harding and Kerrigan case. In 1994, Kerrigan was attacked, with her assailants aiming at her legs. The attacker was Shane Stant, who was hired by Harding’s ex-husbands Jeff Gillooly and Shawn Eckardt. Harding denied involvement but ultimately pleaded guilty to “conspiracy to obstruct prosecution,” although many believed she had played a larger role in the attack.
Diallo was held in custody and questioned by police, but was released two days later. Then came a twist. Reports surfaced in Le Monde that Eric Abidal, the former Barcelona star, would be questioned after it was revealed that he was having an affair with Hamraoui while she played for the Catalan club.
Police determined that the SIM card in Hamraoui’s phone was in Abidal’s name and the attackers allegedly yelled, “So that’s how you sleep with married men?”
Abidal admitted the affair to his wife, Hayet, who filed for divorce. Hayet Abidal denied any involvement in the attack but spoke voluntarily to police. Neither of them has ever been suspected.
Former PSG Women’s player Aminata Diallo was charged with aggravated assault last month after being taken into custody in connection with an attack on a teammate
Hamraoui was attacked by masked men with an iron bar after being dragged from Diallo’s car
Both Diallo and Hamraoui returned to training early this year. Diallo was supported by many of her teammates as PSG fans unveiled a banner in support of her.
Hamraoui, on the other hand, was regularly booed by fans.
In February, Hamraoui was called up to the French team for the first time in three years. Diallo was not in the squad. In a match against the Netherlands, PSG players Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Kadidiatou Diani celebrated a goal by making an ‘A’ symbol. “It was a party for Aminata Diallo,” Diani confirmed to the media after the game.
The strained relations between players affected the rest of PSG’s season. They lost their title to Lyon, who also knocked them out of the Champions League. Diallo left the club at the end of the campaign. In May, a man was arrested in connection with the attack. Three more were arrested in September.
Then another twist came when Diallo was arrested again at the end of the month. The men in custody named Diallo as the organizer of the attack.
Police had tapped Diallo’s phone after she was released. Diallo is said to have googled ‘how to break a kneecap’ and ‘dangerous drug cocktail’ in the run-up to the attack.
A bomb report last month revealed Diallo’s phone activity ahead of the attack on Hamraoui
Diallo (far left) allegedly googled ‘how to break a kneecap’ when police tapped her phone
Extracts from a report by the Crime Prevention Brigade of the Versailles Judicial Police were published by the French newspaper Le Parisien, which claimed that a “real hatred” had developed within Diallo towards her teammate.
The report would suggest it has been a “slow psychological drive that has become pathological, so to speak.”
Diallo was charged with ‘aggravated assault’ but was released on parole. She continues to deny any involvement in the attack, while a fifth man has since been arrested.
Diallo was interviewed last week by French radio station RMC sport and prominent YouTuber Parisien ou Rien in her first public appearance since her arrest. In the radio interview, Diallo insisted she is 100 percent innocent.
“She has an answer to everything that seems incriminating,” Le Monde journalist Pierre-Paul Bermingham told Sportsmail.
“There have been a lot of broken relationships between teammates, friends, even fans and players.
Diallo (left) is said to have developed a ‘pathological’ hatred of her then PSG teammate
Hamraoui has suffered a lot of abuse. For a long time it was thought that she had wrongly told her teammate out of spite. Hamraoui got so much abuse from the PSG ultras.’
A French journalist told Sportsmail that Diallo managed to paint a story that she, rather than Hamraoui, was the victim of the story. “Diallo is very smart. She defends herself very easily.
‘The story started to be. Diallo is the real victim and Hamraoui is not the woman you think she is because she had an affair with Abidal.
“The police were watching Diallo because they didn’t trust her. They got the feeling that she has a dual personality. One side is very charming, very bright. The other side is very dark.
“She convinced people that Hamraoui was a terrible teammate and said nasty things about her.
“She even managed to contact Mbappe’s mother to say that I am the victim of the story. When Mbappe’s new contract was being negotiated, his mother said it would be good if Diallo was offered a new contract, because what happened to her is terrible.”
Police may have found a link between Diallo and the attackers, but proving a direct link could be difficult.
“She knows it will be very difficult to prove that she has ties to the people who carried out the attack on Hamraoui,” said another French journalist. “There is no evidence that she was in direct contact with them. I think she’s taking advantage of the fact that there’s no real evidence.’
Public sympathy has once again shifted to Hamraoui, who is still under contract with PSG. The midfielder is yet to appear for the club this season, but is available for selection.
Diallo will remain under judicial supervision under strict conditions until the investigation is completed. It may be many years before this story is told in theaters, but it will undoubtedly make for compelling ratings.