Questioning: French football star Franck Ribery, right, arrives at a Paris police station for questioning today
To be Franck: Despite the scandal, Ribery was called up for the French national team for the World Cup
French midfielder Franck Ribery is facing up to three years in prison after being charged with soliciting an underage prostitute for sex.
Karim Benzema, a fellow French national team player, was waiting to hear if officers investigating the case would charge him as well.
The pair were earlier held for questioning by police as part of an investigation into an alleged prostitution ring.
Under age: Zahia Dehar, now 18, has told vice squad officers that Ribery flew her to Munich to celebrate his birthday
Break: Ribery on holiday last week in Spain, pictured with his wife, Wahiba, and one of his two daughters
Inquiry: Munich forward Ribery could face up to three years in prison and a £40,000 fine if found guilty of paying to have sex with a minor
They were taken in by a special prostitution brigade in Paris at the request of an investigating magistrate.
The inquiry became public this year after a young woman claimed that several football players on France's national team paid to have sex with her when she was 16.
Zahia Dehar said the players were not aware of her age when they had sex with her.
Prostitution is legal in France, but prostitutes must be over 18 years old, and clients are liable if they are not.
Munich forward Ribery, 27, could face up to three years in prison and a £40,000 fine if found guilty of paying to have sex with a minor.
'It is an intentional offence, he would have to know her age, which wasn't the case,' said Ribery's lawyer, Sophie Bottai.
'She would have to look minor, which wasn't the case, she would have to tell him she was minor, which wasn't the case, since all over the press she claimed that she was adult and that she was more then 20 years old.'
Dehar said she had been paid for sex since the age of 16 when she began partying in Paris.
She claimed she met Benzema at a nightclub and he bought her services, and alleged that Lyon and France forward Sidney Govou had, too.
She told Paris Match magazine that Ribery flew her to a hotel in Germany for the night as a birthday present to himself.
Dehar, who was 17 at the time, told the magazine: ‘He made reservations at a luxury hotel in Munich. We had sex and he paid me. I was a lovely little present, wasn't I?'
Despite the scandal, Ribery was called up to the national team for the World Cup in South Africa, where France did not advance past the first round following a string of poor performances.
Benzema was left off the squad, with then-coach Raymond Domenech saying it was because of his unimpressive season.
Dehar had written a letter to Domenech asking him not to take the case into account before announcing his squad for the World Cup.
Following the scandal, Ribery said: 'It hurt my family, above all those close to me. That’s all I want to say.’
However, Ribery's childhood sweetheart Wahiba, who he converted to Islam for in order to marry, has clearly decided to stand by her husband after the scandal.
The family put on a united front on holiday in Formentera, Spain recently.
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