Football recruiter Éric Olhats, ex-mentor of Antoine Griezmann at Real Sociedad de San Sebastián, will request his provisional release this Tuesday, May 31, according to information from the Sud-Ouest newspaper. He has been indicted for sexual abuse of minors and possession of child pornography since May 12, when he was placed in pre-trial detention.
Three of Éric Olhats’ former students have filed a complaint for acts of sexual abuse, committed between 1998 and 1999, when they were under 15 years old. During 2019, an anonymous letter was sent to the Bayonne prosecutor’s office, to “denounce inappropriate gestures towards young players while he was exercising the functions of coach and recruiter” within Aviron Bayonnais FC.
For the general public, Éric Olhats is the man who discovered in 2005 the future world champion Antoine Griezmann, a frail teenager shunned by French training centers, by chance at a youth tournament at Camp des Loges. In the world of football, his technical eye led this gruff man to become a recruiter for the Real Sociedad club and then for Atlético de Madrid, Spanish champions a year ago, where he is now responsible for to detect the potential future hopes of the club.
The Bayonnais was arrested on May 10 at his home and placed in police custody. At the end of it, the Bayonne prosecutor’s office opened a judicial investigation. The respondent disputes the facts of which he is accused, liable to 10 years in prison. The investigating judge, however, considered that there were sufficient charges against him.
Éric Olhats will appear this Tuesday before the investigating chamber of the Pau Court of Appeal, the courtroom qualified to judge requests for release during the investigation.