Football

Ex-Ivory Coast footballer sentenced to three years for rape

Aboulaye Traore, a former Ivory Coast international footballer and 1992 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) hero, was handed a three-year prison sentence in Abidjan for the rape of a 19-year-old woman in 2021.

A court in the Ivory Coast delivered its verdict on Wednesday.

After five years of legal proceedings, Abdoulaye Traoré, known as Ben Badi and now 59 years old, was found guilty of rape. 

The ruling was severe: three years in prison, ten years of loss of civil rights, a five-year ban from residing in Bouaké, and an order to pay 15 million CFA francs to the victim as compensation and damages.

According to a judicial source, the footballer was found guilty of having non-consensual sexual relations in March 2021 with a woman who was 19 years old at the time.

Abdoulaye Traoré is a household name with football fans across the Ivory Coast.

He was a lethal striker, twice topping the Ivorian league’s scoring charts in 1992 and 1994.

On the international stage, he burst onto the scene at the 1988 Africa Cup of Nations, finishing as the tournament’s top scorer.

But 1992 was his year of eternal glory, as he played a pivotal role in guiding the Elephants to their historic first continental title.

Dauda Musbau

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