the essential In a podcast from L’Équipe Explore entitled “The Ogre of the cities”, the former TFC player revealed that he had been used as bait by Ahmed Gueninèche, a former recruiter sentenced to 18 years in prison for rape and sexual assault on minors.
It is surely one of the cases that shook the world of French football the most. A little over two years ago, in March 2022, Ahmed Gueninèche was sentenced to 18 years of criminal imprisonment for rape and sexual assault on minors. Thirteen plaintiffs testified, all under the age of 15 at the time of the incident. However, more than a hundred people are believed to be victims.
This Monday, October 7, a little more than two years later, The Explore Team released a podcast series called “The Ogre of the cities” retracing this affair. Several victims testify including William Vainqueur, a former player of the Toulouse Football Club (22 matches between 2019 and 2020). The ex-recruiter spotted him while he was playing at the Bussy-Saint-Georges FC club and was subsequently recruited to FC Nantes in 2003.
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“I was so far from suspecting all that”
In these first two episodes, he told the sports media that he only realized too late that he had been used as bait. “When she (the commissioner, Editor’s note) told me everything, I was taken aback, it was a real shock. She was the one who explained to me that he was in the habit of using my name to reach for his purposes with children. I was so far from suspecting all that, my first daughter, when she was born, I put her in Ahmed’s arms,” he says emotionally.
In 2006 the player’s career took off and found himself very useful for Ahmed Gueninèche in order to attract new victims. It was then without hesitation that he went to testify. “I felt indebted to all the victims,” he explains, still touched by the facts.
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“At the trial, it hit me in the face: among them, I recognized a guy I had met during a tournament. A player I remembered very well, who had a strong character. Imagine that even a person like him could have been abused by Ahmed… At the end of the trial, I went to him and said: ‘Honestly, bro, I’m so sorry’.”
