On 24th April 2019, Espanyol hosted Celta Vigo on La Liga matchday 24. Hugo Mallo was the captain of the Galician side and led the series of handshakes between the players to greet each other before the start of the match. When he passed in front of the employee who was playing as the ‘Periquita’, the mascot of the home team, he made a special gesture that, five years later, has been proven as sexual abuse according to the courts.

The newspaper ‘AS’ publishes that it is the result of the investigations that were carried out after the worker, ‘Ana’, denounced the now footballer of Aris Thessaloniki. When the incident came to light, he soon left the Spanish side to sign a contract with Internacional de Porto Alegre in Brazil and, shortly after, he moved to Greece, where, less than a fortnight ago, he was a starter in a league match against Asteras Tripolis.

"It is proven that the accused Mr Hugo Mallo Novegil (...), at around 20:30 CET on 24th April 2019, being a player and captain of Real Club Celta de Vigo, on the occasion of the match between Real Club Deportivo Espanyol and Real Club Celta de Vigo (...), at the time of greeting both the components of the opposing team and the two people who characterise the mascots of Espanyol, these being a parakeet and a parakeet...’, states the judge.

‘... on reaching ‘Ana’, who was disguised as a parakeet, the accused, with the intention of satisfying his libidinous spirit and undermining her sexual indemnity, put his hands under her disguise and touched her breasts, forcing ‘Ana’ to retreat and push the accused away with his right hand’, continues the ruling, which appears in its entirety in the pages of the newspaper mentioned in the second paragraph of this article.

January 30, 2024

Hugo Mallo

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