Ferland, Edouard Mendy cry foul over media mix-up with alleged sex abuser Benjamin Mendy

France international and Manchester City player Benjamin Mendy landed in the headlines earlier this year after he was hit with a string of rape and sexual assault allegations. As if that wasn't bad enough, the media appears to have been confused and several publications have been sharing the story alongside photos of the wrong men.

As the Benjamin Mendy story heats up and gains more traction, Chelsea's Edouard Mendy and Real Madrid's Ferland Mendy have found themselves inadvertently being drawn into the controversy.

Both players are now complaining about how their photos have erroneously been used by some media outlets instead of showing the accused. In a social media post, Edouard said, "Sad to see that in 2021, in France as well as in England, for some, Black people have neither names nor distinct faces. These 'mistakes' of photos appear anecdotal, but actually they are quite the opposite, they are highly symbolic," he said alongside screenshots of news reports featuring his and Ferland Mendy's photos. "It's not that complicated to differentiate two faces, especially when the football jersey is of valuable help!"

The same post was shared by Ferland, in which he thanked his cousin Edouard for speaking up about the misuse of their pictures.

Indeed, both Benjamin and Ferland are French internationals, but Edouard is Senegalese. In most of the photos, the players are very obviously wearing either a Real Madrid kit for Ferland or Chelsea for Edouard. All three players are Black.

The Manchester City player is facing charges for six counts of rape and one for sexual assault. According to AS, no formal plea has been entered yet, but Benjamin has denied the allegations and has been in custody since August. He has officially been suspended by Manchester City.

Benjamin signed for the Sky Blues back in 2017 from Ligue 1 side AS Monaco.