Premier League target Zakaria Aboukhlal has won his defamation case against French media outlet RMC Sport, ending a saga that has dragged on for nearly two years.
The Paris Court of Appeal decided in favour of the Toulouse winger, who is attracting interest from a number of English clubs led by Wolves and Southampton.
The dispute dates back to May 2023 when RMC reported that Aboukhlal made a sexist and discriminatory remark to Laurence Arribage, the then deputy for sports at the Toulouse mayor’s office.
The Morocco international has always denied saying ‘in my country, women don’t speak to men like that’, but it became a major issue in France with minister for sport Amelie Oudea-Castera becoming embroiled in the controversy.
It threatened to tarnish the reputation of Aboukhlal who was already in the news for refusing to take part in a campaign by French football against homophobia.
Toulouse launched an investigation into the alleged altercation with Arribage and made Aboukhlal train on his own temporarily.
Toulouse star Zakaria Aboukhlal has won his defamation case against RMC Sport
Their dispute began in May 2023 when the French outlet reported that the player made sexist and discriminatory remark to Laurence Arribage
The 24-year-old came back to score three goals last season but it was disrupted by a serious knee injury that required surgery and kept him out of action for nearly six months.
Aboukhlal has added six goals and two assists in 22 games this term, alerting a number of Premier League and Championship clubs.
The Rotterdam-born player will be relieved to finally clear his name after L’Equipe reported that the court of appeal has ordered Arthur Dreyfuss, former general director of RMC, to pay a nominal one euro in damages.