"I am absolutely certain that the kiss was consensual"

The former president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), Luis Rubiales, has assured this Tuesday to be “totally sure” that the player Jennifer Hermoso gave him her consent to give her the “peck” on the lips after winning the 2023 World Cup and for which he is being tried for a crime of sexual assault.

In his statement as a defendant, and to questions from the prosecutor Marta Durántez, he has also stated that he would have also kissed on the mouth a player of the men's national team with whom he would have had the same confidence as with Hermoso because, he has stressed: “I kissed a lot of footballers”.

Regarding the kiss he gave Hermoso, whom he said he has known for “many years”, he said that it occurred at the time he went to give him the medal and he made “a face” because in that game, with which they won the World Cup, she had missed a penalty and for her “it was tremendous”.

He then told her to forget about it and that thanks to her they had succeeded, at which point, according to his account, she grabbed him by the armpits, lifted him up and he at that instant asked her if he could give her a “peck” and she said “okay”.

When they finished hugging each other in the air, he continued, when they went to “kiss” after giving him “permission”, he grabbed her head with his hands in an act that was “simultaneous: the question, the answer and then came the kiss,” he said.