Portuguese footballer Rúben Semedo, who moved from Sporting CP to Spanish side Villarreal in a €14 million deal last year, has been charged with attempted murder and will await trial in jail without bail for allegedly tying up and beating a man in his own home.
The 23-year-old defender is accused of crimes of attempted homicide, wounding, threats, unlawful detention, illegal possession of a gun and robbery with violence.
He appeared before a judge at a court in the town of Lliria, just north of Valencia, on Thursday.
His victim alleges that Semedo threatened to cut off his finger and beat him with a baseball bat before shooting at him twice without hitting him as he escaped.
He claims that while he was being held hostage, Semedo and two other attackers ransacked his flat and stole over £20,000 and other valuables, including a computer.
He is said to have escaped after pretending to take them to the home of a friend who owed them money.
Following the accusations, police seized a gun at Semedo’s home in a luxury estate called Torre en Conill near Valencia. It was found in a basement used as a home disco, and the local reports say the serial number had been wiped off.
The ordeal is believed to be linked to a row over a debt.
The other two suspects, one of them said to be a relative of Semedo, are reported to be on the run.
Semedo’s agent Cátio Baldé says the footballer was “the victim of a set-up”.
‘Rúben was victim of a fraud, an enormous set-up. He didn’t react in the best way in the face of this situation but he was the victim,” he insisted.
‘His family and I are by his side to help him overcome this moment. His career has been stained. Let’s hope it’s a case that has no serious consequences. It’s bad for a young athlete who was just starting a promising career,” Baldé added.
Semedo is also being probed over a separate incident outside a nightclub last October.
His club has opened an investigation and promised earlier this week to take the “appropriate disciplinary action.”
Sporting CP coach Jorge Jesus, who coached him last season, said he was surprised by the news.
“He was always an exemplary professional, a kid with a lot of conscience and a normal guideline as a citizen,” he said, adding that he believed he would have a “brilliant career with Villarreal”.
michael.bruxo@algarveresident.com
