Atlético de Madrid has terminated the contract of its scout in France, Eric Olhats, 59, after his arrest on May 12 in the French Basque Country, accused of sexual assault on minors more than twenty years ago.
The one who was the discoverer of Antoine Griezmann, among others, remains confined in the French penitentiary center of Mont de Marsan by order of a Bayonne judge.
Since 2018, Olhats worked for the mattress club, where the news of his representative's entry into prison has made a great impression.
The club opened an internal investigation to verify the arrest and has broken the contractual relationship with Olhats, "by not being able to perform the functions for which he was hired due to his entry into prison."
Atlético does not judge its worker, since that is what French justice is for, club sources explain.
It is not the first time that Olhats has been involved in a similar accusation.
In September 2010, the Pau Court of Appeal acquitted the scout after he appealed a previous sentence for corruption of minors issued in October of the previous year by a court in Dax.
In it, he was sentenced to three months in prison and prohibited from carrying out any activity related to minors for ten years.
The Royal Society, the team for which he worked at the time of the sentence, separated him.
However, the San Sebastian club rectified and reinstated the French Basque coach, although after a negotiation between the two parties, Olhats decided to leave amicably and joined the structure of the British company ISM for the detection of soccer players.
The promising scout of French football, who worked for Sochaux, Bastia and Toulouse, as well as for Real Sociedad, hosted Griezmann, his great discovery, the player he took to San Sebastián after that he was rejected by Olympique de Lyon due to his limited physical presence.
The soccer player lived with Olhats in his house – from the ages of 13 to 19 – when the first complaints were made.
When these happened, the Real suspended the scout, who belonged to their structure, and had to find another accommodation for Griezmann.
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After knowing the judicial resolution that acquitted him, Olhats declared: “After everything that was sold, I suffered more for my loved ones than for myself.
But a release on these types of charges is not easily obtained, especially on appeal.”
He then added: “I make my criminal record available to skeptics.
This is my only response and my only comment.”
Eleven years later, Eric Olhats remains in preventive detention in jail by order of a judge who accuses him of corruption of minors and possession of pornographic material, also related to minors, found after a search of his home.
The magistrate who decided to put him in prison, after two days in police custody, considered that there were enough charges against him, despite the fact that Olhats pleaded not guilty.
pornographic images
The investigation was launched after the Bayonne Public Prosecutor's Office received an anonymous letter in 2019 denouncing "inappropriate acts and gestures towards young footballers while Olhats was a coach at Aviron Bayonnais".
In August 2021, a rape complaint was registered.
The Bayonne prosecutor, Marc Bride, accuses him of the charges of "sexual assault on minors under the age of fifteen by a person who abused the authority conferred by his position and also of possession of pornographic images of minors" .
The events date back to 1998 and 1999, and the victims are, as has emerged through various French media, three of Olhats' former students at the Aviron.
In the French club, which maintained close ties with Real Sociedad, although it now has a collaboration agreement with Athletic, they prefer not to refer to the matter of their former coach.
In Real, to whose structure Olhats belonged, there is no official reaction either, although unofficially, they point to being amazed by the accusations against the scout, with whom, after his departure from Real, they had a good relationship.
Proof of this is that he recommended the signing of Robin Le Normand, who had made his debut in the French Ligue 2 at the age of 20.
In San Sebastian they heeded the recommendation and the Breton footballer is now essential in Imanol's plans.
"At Real we did not detect anything," says an anonymous source from the club.
"If not, we would have adopted the appropriate measures at the time."
There was no complaint about Olhats during his time at the San Sebastian club, which in recent years has launched several campaigns to prevent abuse and harassment of its youngest players.
Ohalts, who continued to advise Griezmann for several years, and even advised him on his signing for Atlético de Madrid, broke his ties with the footballer in 2017, when the player invited him to his wedding in Toledo and Olhats, a person of character strong, according to those who know him, did not appear.
Griezmann had placed him at the main table, where not even the player's brothers were, and his chair was not occupied.
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