News that the former Arsenal midfielder Thomas Partey is poised to join Villarreal has roiled fans of the Spanish club, with hundreds signing a petition urging the club to halt what has been described as the “darkest day in the club’s history”.
Partey appeared in a London court on Tuesday, charged with five counts of rape relating to two women, and a charge of sexual assault against a third woman. The alleged offences are said to have taken place in 2021 and 2022 when Partey was playing for Arsenal. Partey’s lawyer has said he denies all the charges.
Partey was granted conditional bail on Tuesday, and the chief magistrate told the court he understood that the 32-year-old would soon be moving to Spain. Villarreal have agreed to sign the Ghana international on a one-year contract with an option to extend by 12 months.
The news came as a shock to Villarreal fans, said Rahul Lakhani, a football journalist and La Liga expert behind the La Liga London account. “It’s rocked the community,” Lakhani said. “I’ve had people in my social media responding quite aggressively to me, saying he’s innocent until he’s proven guilty. But the overarching reaction is that Villarreal fans don’t want their names associated with him.”
Scores of fans have voiced their opposition to the move on social media, using a hashtag that translates as No to Thomas Partey. Others have passed around contact details for the club’s official channels, urging people to complain.
As Arsenal gear up to host Villarreal in a friendly on Wednesday, Lakhani described Partey’s potential signing as a “stain” on Villarreal, a club long deeply intertwined with its home town of 50,000 people. “They’re seen as someone who isn’t like Real Madrid or Barcelona, or the Big Six,” he said. “They’re the antithesis of that – they’re a club that has helped their community a lot, they’re seen as a family-run club.”
Partey’s arrival would probably alter this image, he said: “Their name is now going to be associated with wanting to sign someone who has five [rape] charges over his head, rather than being known as a club that plays good football or punches above their weight.”
More than 800 people have signed a petition that describes the move as a “slap in the face” to the club’s supporters and “all victims of sexual abuse worldwide”.
The petition was launched by the online content hub Villarreal Report, which this week said the signing would be “an act of pure betrayal of the highest order” against the club’s supporters and Villarreal’s values. “The darkest day in the club’s history is drawing closer by the second,” it said on social media.
Villarreal did not respond to a request for comment.
Earlier this year, as Partey’s contract with Arsenal neared its expiry date, the north London club confirmed they were in talks over a new contract. After they failed to agree a new deal, it emerged that Partey, who has played for Atlético Madrid, Mallorca and Almería, was instead heading to Spain. He was charged days after he left Arsenal, after an investigation that began in 2022.
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Partey’s lawyer, Jenny Wiltshire, has previously said he “denies all the charges against him” and that he welcomed “the opportunity to finally clear his name”.
Some Villarreal fans have embraced the prospective signing, hinting at the deep divisions sown by Partey’s expected arrival. “For Villarreal it’s a top signing, I think it’s great for the team,” said Borja Jiménez Ortega, who heads the L’Os Groc supporters’ club in Madrid. “I have a lot of confidence in the club.”
The view was widely shared among the 60 members of his fans group, he said. “There’s just two or three who don’t want him.”
Others pointed to the wider message being sent by the club. “I’m against this signing,” said César Márquez Trabado, the president of the supporters’ club Peña Amarilla Villafranca de los Barros. “It’s true that he would fit in very well at Villarreal because he’s a player of tremendous quality, but I believe that there are ethical limits that should not be crossed, even if the player has not been convicted of the charges against him.”
It was a view shared by many, he said. “I would say that 90% of fans are against this,” he said. “Because in the end, the team may improve in the short term. But in the long term, this will do a lot of damage to our image.”