Arrests are a rarity in Swiss football. However, FCZ professional Daniel Denoon is far from the first active footballer to be arrested. A look at the best-known cases in football.
The news that made the rounds on Tuesday evening shocked Swiss football: Daniel Denoon, a 21-year-old defender for FC Zurich, was arrested on suspicion of property crimes(Denoon has since been released). An active professional footballer being arrested - almost unprecedented in Switzerland.
The case of Urs Güntensperger, who spent several weeks in prison after repeatedly being caught driving with alcohol in his blood, is well-known. Ex-YB player Marco Müller only became a bank robber after his football career and Erich Vogel only got into trouble with the law as a functionary.
However, arrests of active footballers are not uncommon if you look beyond national borders. While Denoon is presumed innocent, other footballers have been convicted and sometimes sent to prison for years. A look at an inglorious list:
Helmut Rahn
Germany's 1954 World Cup hero was arrested three years after his great triumph. The reason: drunk driving and resisting law enforcement. In 1957, Rahn was pulled over after a drunken drive and knocked a policeman's cap off his head. Because he was caught drunk driving again, Rahn was sent to prison for four weeks.
Maurizio Gaudino
Maurizio Gaudino, former FC Basel player and father of ex-St.Gallen professional Gianluca Gaudino, was arrested in 1994 - then in the service of Eintracht Frankfurt - immediately after a television broadcast.
He was suspected of repeated insurance fraud involving cars that had been taken abroad and then reported stolen. Gaudino was remanded in custody, but was released after 23 hours. He was nevertheless given a two-year suspended prison sentence.
Breno
Breno moved from São Paulo to Bayern Munich in 2008 to great acclaim. However, the defender never lived up to the high expectations. In September 2011, under the influence of alcohol, he set fire to the villa he had rented. The Brazilian was arrested and sentenced to three years and nine months in prison. He then continued his career in his native Brazil and retired in 2021.
Vlado Kasalo
In 1991, the then Nuremberg defender was arrested on suspicion of betting fraud - two own goals brought investigators onto the scene. According to rumors, Kasalo had scored in his own goal to pay off his debts to the Croatian betting mafia, but it could not be proven that he had deliberately manipulated the game. Nevertheless, the two-time Croatian international was later sent to prison for a year. The reason? Illegal possession of weapons.
Mason Greenwood
The tricky attacking player was regarded as a future superstar at Manchester United. But at the beginning of 2022, disturbing images and audio recordings emerged, which his girlfriend published on social media. The British judiciary investigated attempted rape and assault, but closed the investigation after a year, justifying the decision by stating that there was no realistic prospect of a conviction after the withdrawal of important witnesses and due to the evidence.
He reconciled with his partner, and the two have had a child together since July 2023. But ManUtd parted ways with him, and after a one-and-a-half-year break from playing due to the rape allegations, he continued his career at Getafe. Greenwood showed his undisputed class in Spain. He joined Marseille in the summer of 2024. The now 23-year-old also impressed with goals and assists for the South French side.
Atakan Karazor
Karazor was arrested in the summer of 2022. The Stuttgart professional was accused of raping an 18-year-old Spanish girl together with a friend. He denied the allegations and emphasized that the sexual intercourse had been consensual.
After several weeks in custody, he was released on bail of 50,000 euros and allowed to return to Germany. A witness partially exonerated him by testifying that the sexual intercourse had been non-violent. The investigation was downgraded to sexual assault and is still ongoing.
The 28-year-old is a regular member of the VfB squad and has also been called up for the Turkish national team (but has yet to make an appearance).
Rafa Mir
The Valencia-trained professional moved to Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2018 before landing at Sevilla FC for €16 million in 2021 after several loan deals. The striker, who won silver with Spain at the 2021 Olympics, is currently on loan to Valencia again.
Last September, Mir hit the headlines when he was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault. Two women had pressed charges against him and another man. Mir denied the allegations and emphasized that the sexual acts were consensual. It remains to be seen how the legal matters will develop.
Bruno Fernandes de Souza
According to court documents, the Brazilian allegedly killed his lover at the time, Eliza Samudio, in 2010. He hired a contract killer who, according to witnesses, strangled the woman, dismembered her and fed her to Bruno's Rottweiler. The body has still not been found. The reason for this horrific act: Eliza Samudio was pregnant and refused to abort the child. Four months before her disappearance, Samudio gave birth to a healthy son. The goalkeeper was sentenced to 22 years in prison for the contract killing in 2013
Bruno Fernandes was a goalkeeper for Brazilian champions Flamengo Rio de Janeiro at the time and was considered a great hope for the Brazilian national team. The now 40-year-old was released from prison to house arrest in 2019 and was given permission to play football again. Last season, the footballer was still active in a regional city championship.
Quincy Promes
Quincy Promes has been in trouble with the law on several occasions. The former Dutch international was found guilty of smuggling several hundred kilograms of cocaine in 2024. Together with an accomplice, Promes, who was under contract with Ajax Amsterdam at the time, is said to have imported the drugs into the Netherlands via the port of Antwerp in 2020.
In the summer of 2023, Promes was sentenced to 18 months in prison for assault and battery. He had stabbed his cousin in the knee during a fight.
The 50-time Dutch international has not yet had to serve his sentence in his home country. Spartak Moscow gave him a contract despite an arrest warrant - Russia has no extradition treaty with the Netherlands. When Promes was at a training camp in Dubai with his club, he was briefly arrested there for a traffic offense.
He has been under contract with Dubai United since September 2024. In theory, the Emirates have a limited extradition treaty with the Netherlands. This week, the 33-year-old made sporting headlines for a change with a fine goal.
Stig Töfting
The Danish hotspur and 44-time international has repeatedly come into conflict with the law during his career. In 1999, he was sentenced to 20 days in prison in his home country after knocking down a passer-by. In the summer of 2002, the footballer beat up the boss and a member of staff in a restaurant. He was arrested by a plainclothes patrol during his escape.
His club, Bolton, dismissed him and he served three and a half months in prison in spring 2003. The next incident occurred just a few months later: during a Christmas dinner, the Aarhus professional got into a fight with a team colleague - Töfting was kicked out of the club.
Robinho
The former Real Madrid, Manchester City and AC Milan striker has been serving a nine-year prison sentence in Brazil since March 2024. The footballer was convicted of gang raping a woman in a nightclub in Milan in 2017.
For a long time, Robinho - the 100-time international always denied the allegations - was able to successfully defend himself against imprisonment. However, at some point, all legal remedies were exhausted and the Brazilian judiciary recognized the Italian ruling. The 40-year-old is now in prison not far from his hometown of Santos in the state of São Paulo.
Dani Alves
The Brazilian was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for rape in February 2024. A court in Barcelona found the defendant guilty of forcing a young woman to have sex in a disco in the Catalan metropolis on December 31, 2022. The 126-time international must also pay the victim compensation of 150,000 euros.
The former FC Barcelona, Juventus Turin and PSG player denied the allegations in court. He initially denied any sexual contact with the 23-year-old woman in order to "save his marriage". Alves later claimed that the sexual acts had taken place with the young woman's consent. Thanks to a bail of one million euros, Alves is free for the time being - he had to surrender his Spanish and Brazilian passports. The decision of the appeal court is still awaited.
Radja Nainggolan
Former Belgium international Radja Nainggolan is the most recent case in football - apart from Daniel Denoon. He was arrested at the end of January 2025 as part of an investigation into international drug trafficking.
The Brussels public prosecutor's office announced that it was investigating the suspected import of cocaine from South America to Europe via the port of Antwerp and its further distribution in Belgium. The 36-year-old was also arrested in this context.
A total of 30 house searches were carried out in the province of Antwerp and in and around Brussels. Nainggolan has played 30 times for the Belgian national team and at club level for AS Roma and Inter Milan, among others.
