Former Manchester City midfielder Benjamin Mendy will receive £11.5m in unpaid wages from the club after he was accused of rape and sexual assault in 2021, a British judge ruled on Wednesday.
The former France international, who earns £500,000 a month from the English Premier League champions, took his case to an employment tribunal in October 2024.
Benjamin Mendy said a company official assured him that he would receive unpaid wages once he was cleared of the charges.
The 30-year-old defender, who currently plays for French Ligue 2 club Lorient, was found not guilty of six counts of rape and one count of sexual assault in January 2023, but the jury was unable to reach a verdict on another count of rape and one count of attempted rape.
After a retrial, Mendy was found not guilty of both charges. Employment Judge Joanne Dunlop said in the judgment that she found Mendy was entitled to some of the money back, but not all of it.
Mendy spent two terms in custody, representing about five months out of the 22 months covered by his complaint.
The judge said in his decision that, Mendy is not in prison, therefore he is “ready and willing” to work.
“In these circumstances and in the absence of ‘any right in the contract for the employer to withhold his wages, he is entitled to pay,'” said Justice Joanne Dunlop.
Mendy and the club or the court will calculate the exact amount to be paid if they cannot reach an agreement. The club continued to pay Mendy’s wages after his first arrest in November 2020.
But they insisted that they were not required to do so when he was charged due to the conditions of his bail and suspension from the The Football Association, which means he can’t play his role as a player.
