Mario Balotelli went to police and claimed a teenage girl was trying to blackmail him for €100,000 several weeks before she filed a rape complaint against the Brescia player.
They met in July 2017, when Balotelli was still playing in Ligue 1 for OGC Nice.
French newspaper Nice-Matin has outlined the two versions of the situation put forward to police in Italy by both the player and the girl.
He was 26 years old at the time they met and insists she not only told him that she was 18, but also showed her ID to prove it.
Mario Balotelli went to police and claimed a teenage girl was trying to blackmail him for €100,000 several weeks before she filed a rape complaint against the Brescia player.
They met in July 2017, when Balotelli was still playing in Ligue 1 for OGC Nice.
French newspaper Nice-Matin has outlined the two versions of the situation put forward to police in Italy by both the player and the girl.
He was 26 years old at the time they met and insists she not only told him that she was 18, but also showed her ID to prove it.
There is now conflicting information on whether she was 16 or 17 at the time of their meeting, when she was on vacation in Nice.
According to the newspaper, Balotelli told police he had a brief consensual relationship with the girl – who is from Vicenza in Italy – and that she initiated sex at a nightclub and on a private beach.
Balotelli went to police on December 22, 2017 to claim he was being blackmailed by the girl and her lawyer, who demanded €100,000 just to have a meeting.
The girl and her lawyer then went to police on January 15, 2018, to submit a rape complaint against Balotelli.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 24.