French Prostitute Threatens French World Cup Team

Zahia Dehar, now 18, claimed in an interview Thursday that she had paid sex with several French World Cup national team players, but claimed that none of her customers knew she was under 18 at the time.

She claimed she had paid sex with football stars Franck Ribery, Karim Benzema, and Sidney Govou.

The players could face up to three years in prison and a $60,000 fine if found guilty. Prostitution is legal in France, but prostitutes must be over 18 years old, and the men are liable if they are not.





"I never told anybody I was a minor," Dehar said in an interview published Thursday by the French weekly magazine Paris Match. She said she had been paid for sex since the age of 16 when she began partying in fashionable Paris nightclubs and that she charged about $2,650 for a night with a customer.

Dehar also acknowledged she had given every detail to police because, she said, they threatened to revoke her French citizenship. Born in Algeria, Dehar said she and her family obtained French nationality in 2009. She said her family never knew she worked in nightclubs, thinking she was spending nights at a friend's house.

Dehar said she initially became an escort to save money to buy a beauty parlor.