Recognition of paternity: justice ordered DNA test of Marcel Desailly

In football language we could talk about an own goal. During a previous hearing in a dispute between him and his ex-partner, who demands that he recognize the paternity of his daughter, Marcel Desailly asked the court to conduct a DNA test.

This is exactly what the justice ordered in the decision made on Tuesday, March 12, which we were able to familiarize ourselves with. The former France captain now has six months to go to a laboratory in Nantes so his DNA can be compared with that of little 9-year-old Victoria. A decision that also suits the child’s mother, Cosma Batista de Alcantara.

Marcel Desailly, 55, had no choice but to ask for such a test. Failure to do so would automatically lead to recognition of paternity, as was already the case with him, whose first daughter was born out of wedlock.

Nine years of marriage are confirmed by dozens of documents

This time it was Cosma Batista de Alcantara who filed the lawsuit. A native of Brazil, Cosma met the ex-football player at the end of 2009. They remained a couple until 2018, while Marcel Desailly was still legally married to Virginia, the mother of his four “legitimate” children, from whom the divorce would not take place. will be officially completed before 2021.

At the beginning of 2010, Cosma and Marcel moved into a Parisian apartment together. Victoria was born in 2014. In 2016, the couple moved to Boulogne-Billancourt. According to the mother, Marcel Desailly then gradually lost interest in the child, whose paternity he acknowledged financially only on an irregular basis.

After trying the peaceful route, the mother, who now lives in Spain, chose the legal route. To substantiate her demands for recognition of paternity and payment of alimony, she provided dozens of documents, in particular, indicating the closeness of the football player to the child.

Large alimony payments are at stake

In the conclusions that we were able to familiarize ourselves with, the footballer’s lawyer, Françoise Mainoni d’Intignano, on the contrary, considered that he behaved friendly only with the child, who was not his, but his wife’s child. Thus, he would “simply behave as any person would do when meeting a friend with their child. »

However, in the video we were able to obtain, Marcel Desailly appears with Victoria in his arms. “I am with daddy!” Cuckoo! “, the footballer launches, everyone is smiling in these images, dated before 2021, Marcel Desailly has not seen Victoria since that date.

Meanwhile, the former defender settled in Ghana. If a DNA test had recognized his paternity, then the question of the amount of child support would arise. In recent correspondence with his former partner, who demands 5,000 euros a month from him, Marcel Desailly suggested that he was insolvent. “But where will they get it?” – he lamented. You don’t even know my income. I don’t even have this left…”

In case of conviction or even non-payment, the former international footballer, especially those who played for Milan and Chelsea, could become the subject of a financial investigation. In 2014, he was already the subject of a tax investigation on suspicion of hiding funds in Switzerland.

Neither Mainoni D’Intignano nor Françoise Roselaar-Vigier, Cosma’s lawyer, returned calls to me.