Spanish footballer Santi Mina asks to rejoin Celta Vigo while appealing sexual abuse sentence

Madrid (AFP) – Spanish footballer Santi Mina, sentenced to four years in prison after being found guilty of sexual abuse in May, has demanded his “immediate reinstatement” to club side Celta Vigo, the La Liga outfit said Monday.

The 26-year-old, who has appealed the sentence, wants “his immediate reinstatement to the team’s training sessions,” the Galician club said in a statement. 

Celta had temporarily dismissed the player from first-team training and opened disciplinary proceedings after his conviction for sexually assaulting a woman in 2017. 

Mina was cleared of the charge of sexual assault, for which the state prosecutor had sought a sentence of eight years in prison, which according to Spanish law necessitates proof of intimidation or violence.

Mina’s friend David Goldar, who plays for second-tier club Ibiza, was found not guilty after he was accused of being an accomplice.

The woman accused Mina of raping her in a campervan in June 2017 in the town of Mojacar in south-east Spain, where Mina was on holiday with Goldar.

Mina was playing for Valencia at the time of the offence. He joined Celta in 2019.

Celta added that it “reserves the right to claim, if the conviction is confirmed, all damages caused by the player’s behaviour, both financially and in terms of the club’s image, while respecting his right to appeal from today”.