Nicklas Bendtner’s reputation has taken another battering after the Denmark striker was accused of threatening a taxi driver while worse for wear in Copenhagen on the same night his Arsenal team-mates had exited the Champions League to Bayern Munich.
Bendtner, who has not featured for the club since February 2nd but did start for his country against England last week, was reported to have unbuttoned his trousers and rubbed up against the side of the taxi by the Danish newspaper, BT . The 26-year-old is then alleged to have whipped the cab with his belt, calling the driver a "little whore". The cabbie was so concerned that he called the police.
The incident allegedly took place outside the Norrebro Brewery in Ryesgade, a restaurant in a trendy suburb of Copenhagen who had just shown live coverage of Arsenal’s 1-1 draw in Munich, which confirmed their elimination from Europe’s elite competition 3-1 on aggregate. Bendtner was apparently accompanied by three friends, one of whom had a bicycle.
"They were pretty drunk," the 47-year-old taxi driver told BT . "I got out of the car to put the bike stand on the back of the cab, and Bendtner and two of the others climbed into the back seat. When I sat back down I saw that the taxi radio had been kicked loose and was dangling down. They'd also taken some of my personal belongings that had been lying between the seats and, when I asked to have them back, Bendtner completely freaked out.
“He said that, if he was not so famous, he would have smacked me, and he called me a ‘little fat pig’. I asked him to leave the car – I had to ask them three times, and said I’d have to call the police if they didn’t.”
The cabbie then claimed that, while he was removing the bike stand again from the back of the car, Bendtner had to be restrained by his three friends.
“He stood at the back of the car and rubbed up against the side window after unbuttoning his pants while he whipped the cab with his belt and shouted he wanted to ‘f**k me’,” he added.
“I’ve had drunks and alcoholics in my cab in Copenhagen over the last 25 years, but I’ve never experienced anything like this.”
Bendtner's spokeswoman, Elisa Lykke, when contacted by The Guardian declined to comment on the story on Thursday, while Arsenal said they were looking into the matter but declined to make any further statement.
The Denmark international will leave the club this summer under freedom of contract but, while he still hopes to play a part in the club’s run-in, he had claimed earlier this month that his image may hinder his attempts to relaunch his career elsewhere. Bendtner suggested he had been “made into a psychopath” in terms of public perception.
"I have, for example, talked to clubs who say they have heard this or that story about me," he had told the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten . "So I have to tell them that is not true. Of all the things that I have been associated with, I have only done one thing wrong and that was in Copenhagen [an arrest for drink driving]. Regardless of this, I have, bit by bit, in people's eyes been made into a psychopath."
His performance in the 1-0 friendly defeat to England had drawn criticism from the Denmark coach, Morten Olsen, both of the player’s lack of match sharpness with his club career effectively in limbo.
“Bendtner’s not performing enough,” he had said. “I’m hopeful he’ll find a club in the summer. We knew, and we know and saw it at Euro 2012 when he was one of the best strikers, what he offers, but he has to play every weekend. With his big body, he has to be in good physical performance otherwise you see his performance: it’s not enough.”
(Guardian Service)
