Spanish footballer Hugo Mallo has been found guilty of sexual assault after he groped the woman who worked as Espanyol’s mascot Periquita in 2019.

The defender – who now plays for Super League Greece club Aris – was previously due to appear in court at Barcelona’s Ciutat de la Justicia last year, but the case was postponed and now enters its fifth year after the charge was first brought against Mallo.

The incident took place in April 2019, when Celta Vigo travelled to Catalonia to face the Periquitos at their Stage Front Stadium, and footage appears to show the former captain – who was leading his players out onto the pitch – linger in a seemingly tight embrace with the mascot.

The victim first testified in June of that year, with Mallo offering his own testimony a few days later in July 2019 – where he made a request for the case to be thrown out, which was rejected.

Now, he has been found guilty of the assult, with the judge, via AS, deciding that compensation to the victim would be around £844 plus interest, as well as around £8.44 a day for 20 months, totalling just over £5,000 more.

Mallo will also pay procedural costs, and the minimum sentence of 18 months was not imposed becuase there was no act of contrition or repentance by the accused towards the victim.

The 33-year-old had denied the accusations, and he and his representatives could appeal the conviction.

In her victim statement, the individual (who is referred to as ‘Ana’ but has upheld her right to anonymity) said that Mallo had ‘grabbed her breasts’ after reaching under her mascot suit.

‘When Hugo Mallo arrived (to greet) the mascots, he gave his hand to the (male) parakeet (Periquito) as is usually done, but when he reached Ms. Ana, who at that time was playing the role of the (female) parakeet, he introduced his hands under the costume and touched her breasts,’ stated the victim’s initial complaint to the Catalonian police, Mossos d’Esquadra – made the day after the fixture in question.

‘According to the declarant, he grabbed her breasts with his hands and began to make movements.’

The case was first deemed to constitute sexual assault in May 2021, further to an intervention by the Ninth Section of the Provincial Court of Barcelona, with a judge stressing that the footage made it clear that ‘something was happening’ with Periquita.

‘Although it seems to occur quickly, it lasts longer than the rest of the greetings made previously to the mascot, so we do see that something is happening with the mascot (Periquita) and the player, since the mascot moves, (she) takes away (her) hand from the player and stands behind the male mascot,’ the judge told the court.

‘And we can see from the position of the player that he may have incurred said touches.’

The victim is believed to have given up her role at the club in 2021, having previously worked as Periquita since 2006.

The judge at Criminal Court 19 in Barcelona ruled: ‘The accused, with the intention of satisfying his libidinous desire and of undermining the sexual indemnity of the same, put his hands under the costume and touched her breasts, forcing Ana to step back and push the accused away with her right hand.

The highest-paid foreigner in Chinese soccer history is bidding an emotional farewell to the country as Brazilian star Oscar longs for new challenges near home after an almost eight-year stint in the Chinese league.

Chinese Super League club Shanghai Port’s Brazilian midfielder, Oscar, has hailed the sense of security, as well as his emotional bond with the East China metropolis, where he’s embraced as an adopted home, as the biggest reason for his long stay in the Chinese league since the beginning of 2017, despite being far from the center stage of top European soccer.

Now, with his five-year contract extension with Shanghai set to expire at the end of this year, Oscar recently confirmed with the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S Paulo that he’s ready to move on from his China adventure.

The safe, comfortable, and affluent life in China, though, has made his departure a tough decision.

“I love Shanghai, but it’s just too far away from home for us. We can’t stay here forever,” the 33-year-old playmaker told the newspaper in his native language, Portuguese, from his Shanghai apartment, overlooking the scenic Huangpu River. “My mom is getting older, my sisters are having babies. We want to be closer to home.”

“Wherever I go, it won’t be like here. There’s no way to change that,” said the former Brazilian international, who made a shocking move to leave Premier League giant Chelsea for the CSL at the end of 2016.

“The quality of life in China is unique in the world. I’ve never seen anything like it in Europe.

“My kids go to school and come back home by bus without worrying about safety. We can go out as much as we want at 2 am or 3 am, and go anywhere and nothing will happen.

“There are no drugs here. It’s something from another world. Only those who are here, living here, understand how it feels,” Oscar, a father of three children, said of life in China.

Back in 2016, the lure of CSL clubs, funded by millionaire owners from the retailing and real estate industries, proved too lucrative for some of Europe’s biggest stars to turn down.

The likes of former Argentine international Carlos Tevez, Belgium star Axel Witsel, and Oscar’s fellow countrymen Alexandre Pato and Paulinho all joined the top-flight Chinese league on staggering transfer fees.

Oscar, who was only 25 years old at that time as one of the most sought-after rising stars in Europe, left the Premier League for Shanghai in a transfer worth a reported 60 million euros ($66.5 million).

The attacking midfielder reportedly earns the world’s third-highest annual salary at 24 million euros from his Chinese club, with his earnings exempted from a salary cap of 3 million euros for each import imposed by the CFA in 2020, just a year after he signed a contract extension with Shanghai Port.

Since his debut season in 2017, Oscar has gone on to make 234 appearances for the Shanghai club, scoring 72 goals to go with 131 assists in all league, domestic Cup, and continental competitions, helping the club lift the CSL championship twice and the Chinese FA Super Cup once.

The team is still on top of the league table at the moment with 63 points from 24 matches and is marching on to compete for its third league title in club history.

Currently, clubs from Brazil, Europe, and Qatar have already shown their interest in Oscar.

He will most likely make up his mind about the next destination of his career at the end of this CSL campaign in November, he said.

“My wife and I are anxious to know where we will go. We’ve been here for seven or eight years. It’s a big change. The sooner we know, the better,” he said.

The Shanghai club has promised him a future position in the club’s management when he retires, although he believes there is still a long way off before he hangs up his boots.

“I love this club, and I’ve already helped out with a few other things. When the present contract ends, I will continue to keep in touch with the club. That might be a plan for the future,” he added.

Oscar, who plays an inspirational role in the club’s upfront with China’s national team core striker Wu Lei, also showed his disappointment with the performance of the Chinese national team in recent years.

“Even though players perform well in their respective clubs, when it comes to the national team, they just don’t seem to be able to match up,” said Oscar, commenting on China’s 7-0 defeat to Japan and 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia in the World Cup Asian qualifiers.

“In all the years I’ve been here, I’ve hardly seen any youngsters perform exceptionally well. China has some very good players, but they are mostly no longer young. No.7 Wu Lei in our team is the top player in the Chinese Super League. He is very capable. But when it comes to the circumstances in the national team, people expect him to do everything. His responsibility should be to score goals, but he is not doing well.”

Former Nigeria coach Samson Siasia believes that the only thing that the team needs to become world beaters is a creative midfielder, Soccernet.ng reports.

The Super Eagles is one of the most talented teams on the African continent and even the world. Nigeria boasts of some of the top attackers in Africa like Victor Osimhen, Victor Boniface, Taiwo Awoniyi, Ademola Lookman, among others.

There are also some decent midfielders and defenders like Wilfred Ndidi, Alex Iwobi, Fisayo Dele-Bashiru, William Troost-Ekong, Ola Aina, and Calvin Bassey.

However, even with the talent in the team, they have struggled to win games or perform consistently.

Meanwhile, former Nigeria coach Siasia has been in and around the team a lot in the past 20 years. And he believes the team has a lot of talented players, but the only thing they lack is a player like Jay-Jay Okocha, who can take up the role of creating chances.

“We don’t have an offensive midfield player that can give the last pass to the strikers. We have great strikers, but we need someone that is missing,” Siasia told Lagos Talks.

“Iwobi can not play that position. He’s a good player, but he’s not doing as much as he’s supposed to as an offensive player. We have to look for that person in the center of the field, who can give the last passes and score goals.

“In the defencee and other parts, right and left midfield, we are good. We need someone like Jay-Jay Okocha, but it has to be somebody that can score more than him.”

Since Okocha retired from international football, no player has been able to perform the kind of magic that he did for the Super Eagles. Currently, no player has the kind of vision or skill-set that he had. A creative midfielder that can eke out chances for the Super Eagles could be the game-changer for the team.
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