Zakaria Aboukhlal is reinstated. The Toulouse FC player will resume training with his club a few days after being dropped from the group. The latter had been directly involved in two controversies: he had refused to wear a rainbow jersey in support of the LGBT cause and had had an argument with an elected official after winning the Coupe de France.
Toulouse FC and its Moroccan international Zakaria Aboukhlal, sidelined since Monday due to an altercation with an elected Toulouse official, denied on Thursday the version of this incident as reported by RMC, allowing the player to be reinstated in the professional group. . “We confirm that the investigation carried out by the Toulouse Football Club is now closed and that the player returns to the group as of today,” said the TFC in a press release.
Monday, information from RMC sport then confirmed to AFP by a source familiar with the matter reported a heated altercation between the 23-year-old Moroccan international and Laurence Arribagé, Sports Assistant at the Toulouse town hall on April 30. in the Salle des Illustres at the Capitol. The player would have said in particular to the Toulouse elected official that “in his country women do not speak to men like that” while the elected official asked him to make less noise, on the occasion of the celebration of the Coupe de France. won the day before against Nantes (5-1).
“Meeting” organized
Faced with these revelations, the Haut-Garonne club had decided that the Moroccan would train “away from the professional group, until further notice”. “A meeting between Madame Laurence Arribagé and our player Zakaria Aboukhlal took place in the presence of the club’s management,” the club headed by Damien Comolli explained on Thursday. “Following this meeting, we concluded that the facts reported by RMC Sport did not really reflect what happened on April 30 at the Capitol,” he adds.
Aboukhlal (13 goals and 5 assists in all competitions this season), also said he wanted to “end this controversy” on his social networks. Laurence Arribagé also expressed on his Twitter account his wish to “turn the page on this incident which has greatly affected me and my loved ones”. On Sunday, Aboukhlal had already been the center of attention, refusing to play the match between TFC and Nantes counting for the 35th day of Ligue 1 so as not to have to put on the rainbow flocked jersey for the fight weekend. against homophobia in football. Since this controversy, a campaign has developed on Moroccan social networks to defend Zakaria Aboukhlal. Internet users and sites with nationalist and conservative connotations have given their support to the Moroccan international, victim according to them of “excessive defamation”, and denounced “the hunt for Muslim players”.