The Bundesliga star who was recently handed a suspended prison sentence after being involved in a fatal car crash has now been banned from entering a casino in Germany after asking them to do so.
Controversial Schalke midfield star Amine Harit was reportedly banned from a casino for his own good after he spent too many nights in gambling dens during the last Bundesliga season.
According to local media, Harit regularly frequented a casino in the city of Duisburg until late in the night.
A source close to the Schalke midfielder, who wished to remain anonymous, said that Harit was “lonely and seduced by false friends” into gambling at the Duisburg gambling den.
The Moroccan midfielder was born and grew up in France before moving to Schalke in July 2017 on a transfer from Ligue 1 outfit FC Nantes, with the transfer fee reportedly being between 8 and 10 million EUR (7.2 and 9 million GBP) depending on bonuses.
The source said that Harit’s performances during training sessions and matches suffered significantly as a result from his late-night casino binges until his coach Domenico Tedesco and sports director Christian Heidel found out the real reason behind his poor form.
Harit was then reportedly confronted with his gambling problems by the Schalke bosses, who managed to convince the Moroccan international to take drastic action.
In the end, Harit even reportedly contacted the casino himself asking them to ban him from the premises to prevent himself slipping back into old habits.
The controversial Moroccan footballer was involved in a lethal car accident in his native country during the summer holidays when he hit a pedestrian who died as a result of the crash.
He was sentenced to a four-month suspended sentence and handed a 8,600-MAD (713-GBP) fine.
On his return to Gelsenkirchen, sports director Heidel said that Harit “made a impression of having relatively cleaned up his act”.
Heidel said: “But of course it’s not a normal incident, it’s a tragedy – we’ll give him all the help he needs.”
According to local media, there are still big doubts about Harit’s mental abilities at Schalke.
The seven-time Bundesliga champions communicated yesterday that Harit, who was taken off the pitch in a match against Leverkusen on 19th December after suffering a hamstring injury, will not travel with the club to their winter training camp in Benidorm, Spain.
As an official reason, the club said that rehabilitation conditions are better in Gelsenkirchen to get him back to match fitness.
Story By: Koen Berghuis, Sub-Editor: Lee Bullen, Agency: Golder’s News And Sport
This really is for his own good, few are the sportsman today that don’t act like stars