Sexual assault charge against Lucas Piazon dropped

Before heading out on his latest loan, Chelsea prospect Lucas Piazon spent part of his summer in Canada playing for the Brazil U22 team at the Pan Am Games.  Brazil finished third, but the most notable outcome of the whole thing was Piazon (and a buddy from the team) getting charged with sexual assault by Toronto police and warrants issued for their arrests.  Not exactly a good thing, to say the least.

Fortunately, it would seem that at least for Piazon, the situation has been resolved without any further damage.

Prosecutors have dropped a sexual assault charge against a soccer player who competed for the Brazilian team in last summer's Pan Am Games in Toronto [...] The charge against Lucas Domingues Piazon, 21, was dismissed Tuesday morning because there was no reasonable prospect of conviction, defence lawyer Brian Greenspan said.

-source: Globe & Mail

Piazon's lawyers released a statement thanking Crown prosecutors, but also attacking the Toronto police for their unsubstantiated actions and charges, which have now "unfairly tarnished" the player's reputation.

Charges against Piazon's teammate Andrey Da Silva Ventura, who is sought on a Canada-wide warrant, rather than the state-wide one as in Piazon's case, remain.