Two months following the end of his contract in Caen, Yoann Court is talking regarding him once more. Still looking for a new club, the 34-year-old attacking midfielder was attacked by a woman from whom the footballer borrowed a large sum of money without repaying her.
Good footballer but bad payer. A professional player’s career can quickly take a turn for the better thanks to one good performance. But on bad days, everything can also spiral into a negative situation and Yoann Court has learned this the hard way in recent months. Free since his departure from Caen in January, the 34-year-old attacking midfielder found himself at the heart of the news when Julien Courbet and RTL radio contacted him for a debt of several thousand euros contracted from an acquaintance named Margot.
The case dates from September 2023 when the young woman lent 8,000 euros to the footballer she met a few weeks earlier during their family vacation in Morocco. Entangled in financial problems because of his addiction to gambling and sports betting like the Italian Sandro Tonali (although prohibited for professional footballers), Yoann Court asked for a helping hand with this news friend and her husband. If Margot agreed to help the athlete, she has still not been reimbursed.
“When he contacted us, he told us that his family was in distress but did not know regarding it. He was the only one who knew regarding the money he owed. He explained to us that he was being threatened and that it risked putting his wife and children in danger,” the compassionate friend recounted in the show It can happen to you on RTL.
Short wide in blurry conditions in Caen
Yoann Court’s professional, and therefore financial, situation spoke in her favor according to Margot. Confident in seeing the player evolve in Ligue 2 at the professional level, the plaintiff became disillusioned following several months without seeing the color of his money. This real estate agent then learned of her departure from Caen in January 2024 six months before the end of her contract.
First excluded from the pro group since mid-November, the attacking midfielder trained at OL left Stade Malherbe in rather vague circumstances and while, according to RTL, creditors went to the training center to demand money to the 34-year-old.
“Under contract with Stade Malherbe Caen until the end of the season, Yoann Court and Stade Malherbe Caen have ended their collaboration by mutual agreement,” said the Norman club via a very short press release. “Absent from the professional squad since mid-November, the midfielder has no longer been part of Nicolas Seube’s squad since January 1.”
Still without a club, almost two months following the end of his adventure with the Norman club, Yoann Court has still not reimbursed the one who came to his rescue at the start of the season despite the existence of a written acknowledgment of debt regarding their agreement.
Court promises to repay and says he is cured of his addiction
Asked to defend himself and explain his point of view, Yoann Court did not seek to deny his debt. But the former footballer passed through Troyes and Brest in particular before joining Caen in 2020. The attacking midfielder promised to reimburse Margot for the entire amount borrowed and tried to justify his situation.
Addicted to sports betting, he even received a one-match suspension and a fine of 3,000 euros by decision of the LFP in November 2023, the veteran experienced a terrible descent into hell because of this illness which, according to RTL, would currently give rise to a total debt of around 40,000 euros.
“I’m going to give it back to him, I promised him that I was going to give it back to him. So in relation to that there is no problem”, assured Yoann Court to the host Julien Courbet. “But for the moment, I don’t have the funds to give back to him. I’m waiting to find a project to give back to him.”
Good news for him, and for the complainant, Yoann Court also insisted that he had managed to cure himself of this madness for sports betting in order to get back on track with his sporting career and his life. Without forgetting, therefore, to repay all your debts.
Jean-Guy Lebreton Journalist RMC Sport
