Wissam Ben Yedder convicted of psychological violence against his wife

Currently without a club, Wissam Ben Yedder is making more of a name for himself in court. On Wednesday, September 3, the 35-year-old footballer was sentenced by the Nice Criminal Court to 150 daily fines of €600, for a total of €90,000, and ordered to pay more than €60,000 to his wife, half in compensation for damages and half in legal costs. Absent at the verdict, the player will appeal, his lawyer, Marie Roumiantseva, announced.

In this marital dispute case, the May hearing discussed at length the chaotic relationship between the player and his wife. They met in 2018, married in late 2021, and have been separated since May 2023.

He had told him he felt betrayed by his agent and his wealth manager and suspected his wife of being in cahoots with them. She had denounced disrespectful, cold, aggressive, humiliating behavior, and threatening words and gestures.

Nothing that could not have been handled by the family court judge hearing the divorce proceedings, the defense argued. But the court found Ben Yedder guilty, citing the violence of his remarks, the humiliation of his cheated wife even though she was pregnant, and his financial dependence on their lifestyle: she had stopped working while he was earning €600,000 to €700,000 per month in Monaco at the time. The prosecution had requested an eight-month suspended prison sentence and a €10,000 fine.

The striker, whose career has been at a standstill since the expiration of his contract with Monaco in June 2024, and a brief stint with Sepahan FC in Iran in the spring, has been facing a series of legal setbacks.

After being convicted in Spain for tax evasion while playing for Seville, he was tried in the fall of 2024 for sexual assault on a young woman during a drunken night out a few months earlier . Sentenced to a two-year suspended prison sentence, he also appealed.

He is also under investigation for rape , as is his brother Sabri, following accusations by two young women he met at a party in the summer of 2023, which both men deny. At the end of May, the Nice public prosecutor's office requested a trial in this case and it is now up to the investigating judge to decide whether to refer the case to the criminal court.