Lucas Hernandez Continues Career Thanks To Suspended Sentence

Lucas Hernandez’s four-year, ongoing legal saga, involving a domestic dispute with his wife, Ms. Llorente has temporarily come to a screeching halt with the announcement of Hernandez receiving only a suspended sentence.[1] To briefly reiterate the context of the matter, in 2017, Hernandez and Llorente engaged in a mutual physical confrontation, leading to the Spanish courts issuing dual restraining orders against each party.[2] Following the altercation, the duo sought to remedy their damaged relationship by getting married and taking a honeymoon together, thus violating the terms of the restraining order.[3]

However, only Hernandez knew of the order and subsequently only he was punished.[4] Yet, by the time the Spanish court flirted with imposing a potential prison sentence of up to one-year upon Hernandez, he had already completed his transfer from Spanish side, Atletico Madrid, to the German Bundesliga squad, Bayern Munich.[5] Nonetheless, just last month, the Spanish court system opted to put out an arrest warrant for Hernandez in order to extradite him to Spain to suffer the consequences of his actions.[6] That is where we left off last time.[7]

On October 27, Hernandez had his appeal upheld in order to avoid serving prison time.[8] Despite the good news for Hernandez, the suspended sentence will last for four years, and any violation committed by Hernandez within that time frame will trigger an automatic extradition to Spain to serve all six months.[9] For now, rather than sleeping within the confines of an 8x11 prison cell, Hernandez will be cozying up each night in his own home, resting up before resuming work the following day with his Bayern teammates.[10]

As a result of Hernandez’s temporary relinquishment from the Spanish legal system, Bayern can now expand their horizons in the upcoming winter transfer market rather than looking for depth at left-back. Though Bayern is one of few teams with little room for improvement, one area they may want to address is the right-back position. Bayern may, in typical fashion, look to swoop up a youth superstar from another Bundesliga league team; perhaps Jeremie Frimpong of Bayer Leverkusen.[11] Or, on the other hand, Bayern may look for an instant impact player such as Juventus’s Mattias De Sciglio, who can play wing-back on either side of the field, just in case Bayern still want an insurance policy for a potential Hernandez slip up.[12] Nevertheless, any hope held out by other clubs around the world that the Hernandez saga might set back Bayern a step has certainly been terminated.

[1] Adriana Garcia, Bayern Munich’s Lucas Hernandez avoids jail time for disobeying restraining order, ESPN (Oct. 27, 2021 4:36AM), https://www.espn.com/soccer/bayern-munich-gerbayern_munich/story/4506755/bayern-munichs-lucas-hernandez-avoids-jail-time-for-disobeying-restraining-order; see Michael Millstein, Lucas Hernandez: Bayern Defender Back in Madrid But for the Wrong Reasons, Conduct Detrimental (Oct. 14, 2021), https://www.conductdetrimental.com/post/lucas-hernandez-bayern-defender-back-in-madrid-but-for-the-wrong-reasons (highlighting the legal complexities and storyline regarding previous context to the Hernandez legal saga). [2] Sergio Fernandez et al., Lucas Hernandez Could Go To Prison, MARCA (Oct. 13, 2021 6:48PM), https://www.marca.com/en/football/bayern-munich/2021/10/13/61670627ca47419f308b4567.html. [3] Id. [4] Bayern’s Lucas Hernandez Sentenced To Six Months In Prison After Disobeying Restraining Order, ESPN (Oct. 13, 2021 11:28AM), https://www.espn.com/soccer/bayern-munich-gerbayern_munich/story/4496829/bayerns-lucas-hernandez-sentenced-to-six-months-in-prison-after-disobeying-restraining-order. [5] See FC Bayern Sign Lucas Hernandez, FCBayern (Mar. 27, 2019 5:10PM), https://fcbayern.com/us/news/2019/03/fc-bayern-sign-lucas-hernandez-from-atletico-madrid (announcing Hernandez’s signing with Bayern for a then club and Bundesliga record, £80M). [6] Fernandez, supra note 2. [7] See Millstein, supra note 1 (detailing the latest in the Hernandez legal proceedings up through October 13 when the last major event occurred prior to the suspended sentence). [8] The Athletic Staff, Bayern’s Lucas Hernandez has prison sentence suspended after successful appeal, The Athletic (Oct. 27, 2021 7:39AM), https://theathletic.com/news/bayerns-lucas-hernandez-has-prison-sentence-suspended-after-successful-appeal/sfoFZMmLA9oV//. [9] Id. [10] Id. [11] See Jeremie Frimpong: ‘I Was Shocked,’ Bayer 04 Leverkusen (Mar. 2, 2021), https://www.bayer04.de/en-us/news/bayer04/jeremie-frimpong-i-was-shocked (exploring Jeremie Frimpong’s transfer to Bayer Leverkusen last year). [12] The reason Juventus keeping DE Sciglio has been revealed, Juventus FC (Aug. 22, 2021 11:45AM), https://www.juvefc.com/the-reason-juventus-keeping-de-sciglio-has-been-revealed/ (detailing the uncertainty surrounding De Sciglio’s future with Juventus despite the club opting not to sell him during the summer transfer window).