Story By: Alex Cope, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Golders
Nicaragua head coach Henry Duarte has revealed three players have been sent home from the CONCACAF Gold Cup after they were caught with reported prostitutes in their hotel room.
The players have been named as forward Carlos Chavarria, 25, and defenders Carlos Montenegro, 28, and Marlon Lopez, 26, and the country’s football federation has confirmed they have been expelled from the squad.
Duarte told local media outlet TN8: “It caught my attention because of who the protagonists of the situation were. Honestly, I didn’t expect it. There are players who you have an idea about and those who you have to be careful with: I didn’t expect it from those three. I feel very defrauded and deceived by them.
Pictures Credit: Golders & Golders/@carlos.a.montenegro.750 & Golders/@ChavarriaNica & Golders/@Mlopezn
“At 1 in the morning, the security guards at the hotel woke me up and showed me a video of some players going into different rooms. I could see their uniform but couldn’t determine who they were, but the security guards knew they were Carlos Chavarria, Carlos Montenegro and Marlon Lopez.”
The coach went on: “I asked them what time it had happened and they told me they were still in the rooms and I didn’t like that. We went to a room and we heard noises. We knocked and one of the girls came out and said there was nothing, that she was with other female friends at a party, having fun.”
He says they then went to the hotel’s administration to receive authorisation to go into the rooms, before they returned, adding: “There were two players, just two doors down from my room, something I can’t understand. I simply told them to grab their things and they were out of the squad, out of the Cup, and then I left.”
Duarte said he then went to another room and “a girl was there, looking like she’d just got out of the shower,” along with Marlon Lopez. He said: “I told them: your party can carry on, but when it ends, grab your things and go home because you’re out.”
Local media report the women were prostitutes. The Nicaragua Football Federation have confirmed the three players had been expelled from the squad for “serious disciplinary faults”. The team will continue in the cup with a squad of 20 players.
Nicaragua lost their first match of the Gold Cup 4-0 to Costa Rica, who were playing in their home stadium, on Monday with none of the trio in the squad.
The tournament is primarily being hosted in the United States, with Costa Rica and Jamaica also hosting matches in groups B and C, respectively.
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