Blades star convicted for crashing his luxury sports car – and then lying about it

How to throw away half a million dollars and make a fool out of yourself? Ask Sheffield United's French striker Lys Mousset – he seems to be an expert on the subject.

The French-born striker of Ivorian descent has had a miserable season with Sheffield United as the Blades tumbled out of the Premier League in a campaign where Mousset failed to score a goal. But he's clearly had things other than football on his mind as he crashed his $500 million Lamborghini in early January after a night of partying.

Lys Mousset's distinctive-looking car was left wrecked and mangled after he crashed it into two parked vehicles in Sheffield on 4 January. The 25-year-old former Bournemouth and Le Havre attacker was travelling at a substantial speed and was driving on the wrong side of the road. It was no joke because the collision force was enough to spin one of the cars – and the Lamborghini was totalled.

A resident heard the sound of a car revving outside his house shortly after midnight and saw two men arguing in the street near the crashed cars. Those were Mousset and his cousin, who was also in the car at the time of the accident.

The prosecutor said Mousset, who was just under the legal limit of alcohol intoxication, told witnesses his cousin had been driving the car in the 40 km/h zone. The not-so-bright cousins decided to tell the authorities that it wasn't the footballer behind the wheel. It was only at a later police hearing that the footballer changed his mind and decided to "put the situation right" – after he'd been arrested.

The footballer pleaded that he only left the scene to get his insurance and other documents and that he believed the owners of the damaged cars there knew who he was.

After Mousset's stories have been heard, he was fined $7,000 and banned from driving for six months. And the damage on his orange beast of a car proved unrepairable. The Frenchman's stupidity cost him dearly – both in money and in reputation. And he only makes $28,000 per week… Poor guy.