Olympiacos defender Ruben Semedo, a Portuguese national, was arrested in Greece on Sunday night following a rape allegation filed by a teenager.
The 17-year-old told the police that she had met the 27-year-old Portuguese player at a bar in the town of Oropos, north of Athens, for drinks last Saturday, after which he drove her to his house in the southern suburb of Glyfada where she alleged she was sexually assaulted.
Semedo will be brought before a prosecutor on Tuesday. A second person has been implicated in the case but he has not yet been detained.
Semedo career riddled with controversy
This is not the first time that the Portuguese international players has caused controversy. In January 2018, it was announced that Semedo would stand trial for an altercation in a bar in Valencia, Spain the previous November, when the player allegedly brandished a pistol and made threats while he was nursing an injury.
He was arrested again in Spain for a separate incident on February 20, this time for allegedly tying up and assaulting a man in his home alongside two others, then going to the victim’s house to burgle it. For the latter incident, he was charged with attempted murder and placed in preventive detention.
On July 13, 2018, Semedo was released from prison after paying bail of €30,000. Facing a maximum 15-year sentence, he confessed two years later to kidnapping, robbery, wounding and illegal firearm possession; he received a suspended sentence, was fined €46,000 and banned from entering Spain for the next eight years.
Speaking about his experience of prison, Semedo said in an interview with Portuguese newspaper A Bola: “I cried a lot of nights. I never did it in front of anybody, but I couldn’t sleep many nights and I was just thinking about my children and my family suffering.”
On June 25, 2019, Semedo joined Olympiacos for €4.5 million, signing a four-year contract. Villarreal retained a 20 percent resale rate on the player and he was to earn around €700,000 per year, being the club’s second-most expensive defender after Belgian Bjorn Engels was bought from Club Brugge for €7 million in 2017.
On March 24, 2016, Semedo marked his debut for the Portugal under-21 team with a goal, scoring the opener in a 4–0 home defeat of Liechtenstein in the 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifiers played in Ponta Delgada.
In October 2019, while still awaiting trial for his crimes in Spain, he received his first call-up for the senior team ahead of UEFA Euro 2020 qualification matches against Luxembourg and Ukraine
Semedo won his first full cap on October 7, 2020, playing the entire 0–0 friendly draw with Spain.
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