Former England Under-16 winger Nathaniel Mendez-Laing has been arrested after a woman complained she had been assaulted in a Magaluf nightclub and had her mobile phone stolen.
The Derby County winger was hauled to court on Sunday following the early-hours incident a day prior.
Respected Majorcan newspaper Ultima Hora is reporting the 32-year-old, who was born in Birmingham but plays for the Guatemala national team, allegedly punched the woman in the face before taking her phone.
His wife, accused of pulling the unnamed woman’s hair, is also said to have been held after police were given the mobile’s geolocator by the ‘assault victim’ and went to their holiday accommodation.
The couple were released pending an ongoing criminal investigation after paying €300 bail according to Ultima Hora.
The mystery woman at the centre of the bizarre incident, described locally as a Brit, is said to have annoyed the footballer and his wife by taking pictures and video of them without their consent inside the unnamed nightspot.
There has not yet been any official comment from the Civil Guard.
It is not clear if Nathaniel, who served a three-month ban after failing a drug test for cocaine in July 2020 when he was still at Cardiff City, remains in Majorca.
Mendez-Laing helped Cardiff win promotion to the Premier League in his first season with the club but had his contract terminated for breach of contract in September 2020 one month after he was suspended by the FA.
He admitted to taking cocaine the night before a match against Bristol City.
The FA later revealed Mendez-Laing served a three-month ban after a positive drugs test having taken cocaine ‘in a context unrelated to sporting performance’.
A statement at the time read: ‘Cocaine is classified as a prohibited substance in-competition by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), therefore Nathaniel Mendez-Laing was charged by the FA for a breach of its Anti-Doping regulations and provisionally suspended on 14 August 2020.
‘Nathaniel Mendez-Laing admitted the charge but was able to explain that the substance had been ingested out-of-competition in a context that was unrelated to sporting performance.’
The footballer had already served a ban for taking the Class A substance once before in 2019.
A statement from Mendez-Laing after serving the 2020 suspension read: ‘With the help of my family, close friends, my agent, and the PFA (Professional Footballers’ Association) during this extremely difficult time, I have been able to overcome my personal hurdles, to focus, and invest my time in working hard, determined to return to football.
‘I appreciate all the support I have been given throughout. I now want to leave that period of my life in the past where it belongs.
‘I’m excited about the future and delighted to be back doing what I love.’
After leaving Cardiff he went on to play for Middlesbrough and Sheffield Wednesday before signing for Derby County in July 2022 and helping the side win promotion to the EFL Championship in his second season with the team.
He represented England at under-16 and under-17 but started playing for Guatemala at international level last year.
Both his mother and maternal grandmother were born in the Central American country.
The footballer has not yet commented on his social media about the Magaluf incident.