Benjamin Mendy launched an £11 million unpaid wages claim against Manchester City by alleging up to five team-mates joined his alcohol-fuelled parties.

Several, including a club captain, “all drank alcohol” and “all breached Covid-19 restrictions”, he added in an employment tribunal demand which follows his acquittals for rape. No names were confirmed during live evidence. However, in further written submissions, Mendy submitted a January 2023 article cutting which named Jack Grealish, Kyle Walker, Riyad Mahrez, Raheem Sterling and John Stones as being with him on one night in question. “All those players attended the parties which led to the charges,” Mendy said of the Athletic website article in written evidence.

Attendees of Mendy’s house parties were not directly named at the hearing. However, evidence submitted to the tribunal includes reference to a partygoer at Mendy’s first criminal trial, who claimed she spoke to the England player Jack Grealish. That same witness also claimed to have seen Kyle Walker during initial court proceedings. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by any of Mendy’s team-mates during any period.

The full-back was suspended by City in August 2021 after being charged with four counts of rape and then denied his £6 million-a-year salary while he awaited trial. Raheem Sterling, Bernardo Silva and Riyad Mahrez subsequently helped support Mendy with loans, the tribunal heard.

After being acquitted on all counts, Mendy has claimed his partying at the time of the allegations was mirrored by other players at the club.

“Several Manchester City first-team players, including the club captain, were all present at the parties that I attended and hosted,” claims Mendy in a written statement contained in a supplementary evidence bundle. There is no suggestion that any behaviour was non-consensual.

Mendy, who spent more than four months in custody before being released on bail in January 2022, adds: “We all drank alcohol. We all had casual relations with women. We all breached Covid-19 restrictions. This does not excuse my behaviour, but I feel that it is unfair for Manchester City to single me out in the way that they have. The difference between me and the other Manchester City players is that I was the one that was falsely accused of rape and publicly humiliated.”

Mendy does not name the players he is referring to.

At the time of Mendy being initially investigated by police, Brazil midfielder Fernandinho was club captain. Earlier in Mendy’s career at the Etihad, Vincent Kompany and David Silva had been club captains. City’s current club captain is Walker. Mendy is being represented by leading sports lawyer Nick De Marco KC at the two-day hearing in Manchester, which will decide whether City should now pay him loss of earnings.

‘I was doing nothing different than several City players’

The former France defender, currently playing as a left-back for Ligue 2 club Lorient while also living in Madrid, says he was acting no differently than other players in a second witness statement “in respect of my claim against Manchester City for unpaid wages”.

“I can’t help but feel that the club are trying to paint a narrative that I was acting recklessly, and my alleged recklessness led to me being arrested for crimes I did not commit,” he said. “I would just like to stress that at the time in question, I was doing nothing different than several of Manchester City’s first-team players.”

From September 2021 until the expiry of his contract, City did not pay Mendy because they deemed him unavailable for work during his bail and subsequent trial and retrial. During cross-examination, Mendy acknowledged he partied at times when he should have been resting but blamed some of his lifestyle choices on the death of his father.

However, in his statement, he said: “I was just as ready, willing and able to perform my duties as the other Manchester City players that Manchester City knew attended the parties, and on Manchester City’s account, acted recklessly. I am not, however, aware of Manchester City deducting or suspending the pay of any of the other players even when it was public knowledge that such players had attended the parties. I do, therefore, feel it incredibly unjust that Manchester City effectively singled me out from the team when I was doing nothing different to the rest of the team.”

Mendy claiming unpaid wages from Sept 2021 to July 2023

The only witness offering evidence from City’s perspective at the hearing was former chief football officer Omar Berrada, a French businessman who is now chief executive at Manchester United.

Berrada was given a robust grilling by De Marco after he repeatedly suggested questions should be referred to the club’s lawyers rather than him.

To further underline Mendy’s point about teammates joining him at parties, Mr De Marco  asked Berrada whether he was aware that “none of the other five players who attended the party in question were disciplined”.

Berrada asked for further clarity on his question, prompting Mr De Marco to add: “I don’t need to tell you the names, unless you want me to.”

Mr De Marco suggested Mahrez may have been disciplined by the club at the same time as Mendy for breaching “Covid regulations”. Berrada, however, said “I did not confirm Mr Mahrez” and added he was unaware of any occasion where City players had trained separately because of disciplinary matters.

Mendy’s contract showed he would also receive a £900,000 bonus for appearing in 60 per cent of matches, a £1 million bonus if City qualified for the Champions League, and an annual £1.2 million payment to his image rights company.

Court documents show Mendy “very quickly ran out of money” and had to sell his Cheshire mansion to cover legal fees, bills and child support payments after his wages were withheld. “I struggled to pay my child support, I felt awful,” his witness statement says.

Mendy said his agent, Meïssa N’diaye, paid towards his legal fees, while team-mates including England international Sterling offered “financial support”.

“Raheem Sterling, Bernardo Silva and Riyad Mahrez all lent me money to help me try and pay my legal fees and support my family,” he said.

Berrada denied telling Mendy’s representatives that Mendy would receive his unpaid wages once he had been cleared of the charges.

The tribunal heard Mendy was held in custody between August 2021 and January 2022, and again between December 2022 and January 2023 after he breached his bail conditions by hosting and attending multiple parties.

Mendy signed for Lorient at the start of last season. He joined City from Monaco in a £52 million deal in 2017 and won Premier League titles in 2018, 2019 and 2021. His final appearance for the club came in the Premier League on August 15, 2021.

In January last year, he was cleared of six counts of rape and one count of sexual assault. He was then cleared of raping a woman and attempting to rape another in July at a retrial. The tribunal concludes on Tuesday.