Former Germany international Christoph Metzelder is being investigated by German police over allegations of distributing child pornography.
A statement from the Hamburg attorney general's office said the 38-year-old is accused of having sent images with child pornographic content to a recipient in Hamburg via WhatsApp.
Hamburg police carried out two searches in Dusseldorf on Tuesday.
Metzelder is said to have co-operated with the authorities.
The material collected from the searches will now be evaluated, and the investigation continues.
Metzelder won more than 40 caps for Germany and was a member of the squads for the 2002 and 2006 World Cups.
The centre-back helped Borussia Dortmund win the 2001-2002 Bundesliga title during a seven-year spell with the club before winning La Liga with Real Madrid in the 2007-08 season. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/49579323
He runs a foundation for socially disadvantaged children in Germany according to this article https://the42.ie/4795426
Foundation website down: https://www.metzelder-stiftung.de/
Some info on it here, must find which celebs were involved https://skypak-blog.com/metzelder-foundation/
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Koninator ago
I am still very skeptical in shis case because the woman that went to the yellow press outlet "Bild Zeitung" first and later to the police is Metzelders ex girlfirend. Who knows if she had access to his devices and dragged him into this? As long as not more has been found at Metzelders home computers, that might be a solid defense strategy. A common narrative in the german media is to wait for the verdict and go from there. People just don't want to believe that a guy with such a good public image did this.