Griezmann, the legal investigation which embarrasses him

This weekend, L’Equipe Magazine delved into the Eric Olhats affair, named after Antoine Griezmann’s former mentor, who was accused of rape of minors, without being convicted.

Eric Olhats. In French football, this man has long enjoyed a good reputation. “ He worked a lot for football in the Basque Country. He’s a very pleasant, friendly person.” confided Bayonnais Didier Deschamps in 2017 about the man who has long been a recruiter, notably for Atlético de Madrid. And who is best known for having been the “discoverer” of Antoine Griezmann.

It was Eric Olhats who spotted him, who brought him to Real Sociedad, and who was in charge of transporting certain young players to the club’s training center in San Sebastian. Griezmann was part of it, and he was one of the

“darlings” of Olhats. “With Antoine, it was a real father-son relationship, says another young player of the time in the investigation published this weekend by L’Equipe Mag. He was one of the youngest, most carefree, the only one to come from outside the region. Eric was hard on him, on homework or hygiene, but in a different way. In the car, Antoine could change the music, where we took a shot. It was one of his favorites. »

Things have changed since then. For two years, Eric Olhats has found himself in the sights of justice for very dark reasons. He was arrested by the police on May 11, 2022, then indicted for “sexual abuse of minors under 15” And “possession of pornographic images of minors”. Placed behind bars at the Mont-de-Marsan penitentiary center, he remained there until March 23, 2023.

Justice had identified eight potential victims and collected testimonies. The investigation by the judicial police pointed out “an attraction to minors” and a “undeniable deviant behavior”. But at the beginning of July 2023, the Bayonne prosecutor’s office closed the case by closing the procedure without further action, due to lack of evidence.

Griezmann had testified

From this story, Antoine Griezmann came out quite annoyed, ” disappointed “ And ” irritated “ according to L’Equipe Mag that his name is once again associated with this affair. The former striker of the France team had however been interviewed by the police on this subject. It was in June 2022, on the sidelines of a gathering of the Blues for the League of Nations, and Griezmann answered questions in the privacy of the Barrière hotel in Enghien-les-Bains (Val-d’Oise) , where Didier Deschamps and his men stay the day before the match.

During this hearing, Griezmann explains why he moved away from the man who was his representative until 2017.

“ He remained my agent for three years at Atlético then I got fed up with him because he was too possessive. He always wanted to have his say on my performances, and then he found me too many sponsors which tired me out”confided the player to the police, in comments reported by L’Equipe Mag.

Griezmann was above all categorical on this subject: “I lived with Eric from 2004 to 2009 and nothing strange ever happened between Eric and me, or even between Eric and the other children. »