A dark spot has been put on the World Cup 2022 winning side Argentina with a rape allegation put on Gonzalo Montiel. The 26-year-old took the winning penalty for Argentina against France in the final and ended Lionel Messi’s year for the coveted prize. 

The Sevilla player has now been accused of sexual assault by a woman. The woman has now officially filed a complaint against Montiel. The assault is reported to have happened on January 1, 2019, at his birthday party. 

Argentina radio station Radio 10 released an audio clip where the accusor says, “I woke up at six in the evening, and they told me that they raped me. I didn’t remember anything at all. I spent weeks, and months, trying to remember the things they told me. They brainwashed me to try to cover up for this son of a b***h.”

The victim went on to state that she has received death threats from people close to the Argentinian players. 

“I can’t forget his face, I don’t know if it was him or 20 who raped me. They spent weeks calling me, threatening me. There was a car at the door of my house, and I was afraid that they would shoot me. I had calls after calls from his mother and anonymous people who told me that if Montiel’s career screwed up, they were going to shoot me in the head, “ said the woman. 

Raquel Hermida Leyenda, the lawyer of the victim shared details of the incident. 

“It is a complicated complaint because it’s aggravated sexual assault with carnal abuse. The incident occurred on January 1, 2019, at Montiel’s house, on the occasion of his birthday celebration.” She continued, “This girl had seen him twice before. In inviting her, he told a friend of both, ‘Let her come to my birthday; we are going to take care of her’. At one point in the night, she completely lost consciousness. Hours later, she woke up lying on the street, at the door of that house. She doesn’t know how many people were involved in the abuse. But from the first medical analysis that they did in a health centre, we know that there was carnal abuse.”