Brazilian defender, Marcelo, has rubbished reports that he was dropped by his former club, Lyon, for laughing and breaking wind.
The 34-year-old centre-back – full name Marcelo Antonio Guedes Filho – left the Ligue 1 side in January, after being dropped from the senior squad.
This week, French newspaper, L’Equipe, reported that the reason for his fall from grace was a string of disciplinary issues, including inappropriate laughing during team talks and repeatedly passing wind in front of team-mates.
“Thanks to L’Equipe, after a long time, I have come back to Twitter to deny all the allegations,” Marcelo wrote on the social media platform, adding: “Journalism nowadays is a joke!”
It was his first tweet since May last year.
It was not the first time there had been stories about the player’s attitude. In August last year, ESPN reported that he had been expelled from the senior Lyon team after he was caught laughing during captain Leo Dubois’ speech, following a heavy defeat by Angers, in which he himself scored an own goal.
After training with the reserves, Marcelo was moved on to Bordeaux in January. His new club are bottom of Ligue 1.