According to French publication La Provence, Olympique Marseille has suspended defender Adil Rami amid an internal investigation into his actions this summer. Until today, little had been known about why he was suspended with some suspecting it had to do with his public breakup with actress Pamela Anderson, but the new report has shed a different light on the issue.
The report states that Rami lied to the club about his whereabouts in late May, asking for a training session off so he could attend to “personal concerns” but in reality he had gone to film an appearance on French game show Fort Boyard where he participated in a slime wrestling challenge despite being injured. The training session in question took place May 20, two days after a match against Toulouse in which he was withdrawn in the 74th minute, and he missed the next match - the final league game of the season - due to injury.
The Marseille manager at the time, Rudi Garcia, was apparently unaware of this appearance and believed Rami to be taking care of his personal matters. Fort Boyard is a French game show that focuses on physical and mental challenges.
Rami, a 33-year-old French international who was part of the World Cup winning squad last summer despite failing to appear in a match during the competition, has been banned from taking part in preseason training with the squad and is instead training on his own. According to the report, Rami had a hearing at the training ground with Marseille president Jacques-Henri Eyraud on Wednesday and has yet to be allowed back in training.
Garcia has since been removed as manager and Andre Villas-Boas is the new Marseille boss.
Rami has been with the club since joining from Sevilla in the summer of 2017, making 75 appearances across all competitions, although last season was a struggle for the defender, with injuries leaving him on the sidelines through most of the second half. His recent breakup with Anderson was messy, with the actress accusing him over social media of cheating and abuse while calling him a “monster.”
