On the afternoon of July 2, 2021, a woman showed up at the door of Yoane Wissa’s home in France telling him she was his fan. When he opened it, she pushed the door, entered the home, and threw a corrosive liquid directly at his face. The liquid reached his eyes. Wissa was rushed to a hospital, where surgery managed to preserve his vision.
What the police documented afterward made the situation even worse: before being arrested, the woman tried to take the footballer’s daughter. She did not succeed. The episode occurred at the exact moment Brentford of the Premier League was negotiating his transfer, a process that continued during the forward’s recovery and was completed in August of that same year.
Four seasons later, Newcastle United paid 55 million euros for him. At the 2026 World Cup, played in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, Wissa scored with a header the first goal in the history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in a World Cup. Born in Épinay-sous-Sénart, France, of Congolese descent, he is now the player with the highest market value on his national team. The aftereffects of the attack, according to reports, are still with him.