Tuesday, July 20, 2021 at 10:01 PM• Jeroen van Poppel

The 31-year-old Premier League international who has been arrested in a much-discussed sex crime case is Gylfi Sigurdsson, various Icelandic media have said. The Everton attacking midfielder was arrested by Greater Manchester Police on Friday. The charge against Sigurdsson is “child sex offence,” a broad term encompassing multiple forms of child abuse.

English media reported on Monday that a 31-year-old Premier League player, who is currently an international for his country, had been arrested in the case. For privacy reasons, Sigurdsson’s name was not released, not even by Everton, who confirmed that one of his players has been arrested. Among other MBL, one of Iceland’s largest news sites and major newspaper Visir now conclusively establish that it is Sigurdsson. Rumors of his involvement have been going around in England for some time, also because he was missing on Saturday in an Everton friendly match against Blackburn Rovers.

Manchester police released a brief statement on the case on Monday. “Agents arrested a 31-year-old man on suspicion of child abuse on Friday, July 16, 2021. He has been released on bail by police pending further investigation.” The house of Sigurdsson, who is married, has been searched by the police. In the English media, there is a story that the Everton player would have sent sexually explicit messages to underage girls.

Last Sunday, Alexandra Ivarsdottir, Sigurdsson’s wife, denied that her husband was involved in the case. Ivarsdottir also denied that Sigurdsson had been arrested. The married couple is also expecting their fourth child, according to a post on Instagram by Sigurdsson from December 2020. Sigurdsson has been playing for Everton since 2017, where he is the most expensive player in club history with a transfer fee of almost fifty million euros. He is on 78 international caps and is seen as one of the best players in Icelandic history.