Officially, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mario Lemina left the Gabon team for medical reasons, after contracting Covid-19 a few days before the start of the CAN. But the truth would be quite different. Their departure would actually be linked to a behavioral problem.
The two players were already at the heart of a controversy even before the start of the competition for an evening in a nightclub. And they would have done it again on Sunday evening, two days before the decisive match, this Tuesday, against Morocco. Accompanied by Willy Aubameyang, who is none other than Pierre-Emerick’s brother and manager of the Gabon team, the Arsenal striker and the Nice midfielder left the hotel during training for the “Panthers”.
They would not have returned until early morning, “around 5 a.m.”, “completely drunk” and accompanied by “girls they wanted to bring up to their rooms”, according to journalist Freddhy Koula, consultant for RFI. This would have caused “some scuffles between the security service and the players”. One of the players would still have managed to go up with a young woman in his room.
The real reason for Aubameyang and Lemina’s dismissal.
I learn from an internal source that the dismissal of Aubameyang and Lemina in their respective clubs would be more for a reason of indiscipline than for “medical reasons” (which are real).
The explanation here #TeamGabon pic.twitter.com/x0EWfbIRJ8
— Freddhy Koula (@FreddhyKoula) January 17, 2022
Faced with these events, coach Patrice Neveu would have taken the decision to exclude his two stars and send them back to their respective clubs, namely Arsenal and Nice. The facts were nevertheless categorically denied and qualified as rumors by the two interested parties.
“We have already complicated problems to solve and then there are rumours. In short, we have a health to take care of above all, I would not go back on these false rumors and I wholeheartedly hope that our team will go as far as possible, ”posted on his Twitter account Aubameyang, also in difficulty at Arsenal for problems. also behavior.
We have problems that are already complicated to solve, then on top of that there are rumours, in short, we have to take care of our health first and foremost, I won’t go back on these false rumors and I sincerely hope that our team will go as far as possible.
— AUBA⚡️ (@Auba) January 17, 2022
For her part, Lemina indicated that she did not want to “feed the lies that seek to harm me. I do not care. I feel bad for my selection which is surrounded only by liars in search of buzz”, he wrote on Instagram. He also announced that he was ending his international career before finally deleting his message.