Kurt Zouma had known for a few months a second youth on the football fields.
Established by Didier Deschamps during three of the last six outings of the Blues, the central defender had also become an indisputable player again in club with West Ham, who came to look for him this summer at Chelsea for more than 30 million euros.
This return to the fore has just experienced a serious hitch.
Difficult to plead the error of youth on this one.
The former darling of AS Saint-Étienne, launched into the top flight at 16 and a half and now 27, was filmed Sunday afternoon at his home assaulting a cat.
Under the eyes of his son, we see him hitting the feline on the ground like a ball before throwing a shoe at him and finally giving him a slap on the muzzle while the animal is in the arms of a child.
What a disastrous example from @KurtZouma!
We call for sanctions commensurate with the act and hope that the player will be removed from @equipedefrance.
Our country cannot accept being represented internationally by an individual indulging in cruelty.pic.twitter.com/ztgWeaA7Yg
— PETA France (@PETA_France) February 8, 2022
The whole scene unfolds with laughter in the background and laughing emojis embedded in the footage.
According to the newspaper The Sun, the footballer would have tripped because his cat would have accidentally broken a vase and snatched a light fixture.
According to several English media, justice would not intend to open an investigation concerning this video which would have been published by his brother.
What about French justice?
After the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, it is the turn of the Society for the Protection of Animals (SPA) to take legal action.
Jacques-Charles Fombonne announces to Parisian-Today in France that he will file a complaint for animal abuse.
“As a public utility association, even if the acts are committed abroad, we consider that there is damage.
This goes against our mission to protect animals, he is indignant.
The FFF summoned to react… and to sanction it
“This person must be prosecuted.
It is unworthy, he continues.
I think it goes beyond a history of abuse.
There is a child who attends this scene, which is an aggravating circumstance.
Then, besides the fact that it's filmed, and assumed, we're talking about a football player, a star, that is to say someone in whom all the kids who kick a ball have want to identify.
Animal defense associations all stepped up on Tuesday, insisting on the duty to set an example.
The Brigitte Bardot Foundation had drawn the first.
“What a disastrous example of Kurt Zouma!
We call for sanctions commensurate with the act and hope that the player will be removed from the France team.
Our country cannot accept being represented internationally by an individual indulging in cruelty,” also declared the French section of the NGO PETA.
The SPA is also calling for a sanction from the authorities of French football.
“I hope that the Federation will at least suspend him or why not ban him from wearing the jersey of the France team.
What an example does this guy give who hits a cat like a football … It is a breach of social duty, like a prosecutor who lies or a gendarme, “does not take off Mr. Fombonne, himself a general of the gendarmerie .
Solicited by us, the FFF did not wish to speak.
“An animal is neither a punching bag nor a football”
While the next gathering of the Blues is scheduled for the end of March, Kurt Zouma, who has nine caps and one goal since 2015, hastened to ask forgiveness on his social networks.
"There are no excuses for my behavior, which I sincerely regret," he wrote.
I also want to say how deeply sorry I am to everyone who was upset by the video.
I want to assure everyone that our two cats are perfectly fine and healthy.”
These arguments did not really convince Laurence Volbart, member of the Ile-de-France office of the Animalist Party.
“Me, I have a little trouble understanding.
Either you love your cat and take good care of it, or you consider it an object.
An animal is neither a punching bag nor a football”.