Nigerian Midfielder Daga Jailed Six Months Over Sexual Assault
A Norwegian court has sentenced Daniel Daga, a Nigerian professional footballer and former Flying Eagles midfielder, to six months in prison after finding him guilty of committing a sexual act without consent. The verdict, delivered on Tuesday, marks one of the more high-profile criminal cases to touch Nigerian football at the junior international level in recent years, coming as Daga, 19, was beginning to establish himself at Molde FK in the Norwegian top flight.
The court also ordered Daga to pay 10,000 Norwegian kroner in legal costs, the equivalent of roughly 900 US dollars at current exchange rates. The case, first reported publicly by TV 2 Norway, adds to a growing body of disciplinary and legal matters involving African footballers playing in Scandinavia, where judicial standards in sexual offence cases have increasingly drawn international attention.
Daga was charged under Section 297 of the Norwegian Penal Code, a provision that specifically criminalises sexual activity conducted without the consent of the other party. The charge stems from an incident reported to Norwegian police in late April 2025. Public records from the proceedings have provided limited detail about the specific circumstances of the alleged encounter, though prosecutors sought and ultimately obtained the six-month custodial sentence they had requested.
Section 297 sits within a broader framework of Norwegian sexual offence law that was significantly revised in 2022, when the country moved to a consent-based legal standard, aligning itself with several other Scandinavian nations that had already adopted similar legislative approaches. Under the revised statute, the absence of voluntary and clear consent is sufficient to establish the offence, regardless of whether physical force was used. Norwegian legal experts have noted that the consent standard represents a deliberate shift in how the law defines and prosecutes sexual misconduct.
Daga’s legal counsel, Astrid Bolstad, made clear that her client rejects the court’s finding. Bolstad told TV 2 Norway that the player was distressed by the verdict and maintains that the encounter was fully consensual.
“He is very upset about the verdict. He believes he is innocent and that everything happened with consent,” Bolstad told TV 2 Norway.
Bolstad also emphasised that the conviction is not yet legally binding, noting that Daga intends to appeal the ruling through the Norwegian court system. She reminded the public that the presumption of innocence remains in force until proceedings are finalised.
“The verdict is not legally binding yet. He should be treated like anyone else until the case is finalised,” Bolstad said, adding that the player had continued to train normally in the weeks leading up to the verdict.
Under Norwegian criminal procedure, a defendant retains the right to appeal to the Court of Appeal, and the conviction does not take final legal effect until either the appeal period has lapsed without challenge or a higher court has confirmed the sentence. That procedural context is relevant given that Bolstad has already announced the intention to pursue an appeal.
Molde FK, the Norwegian Eliteserien club for which Daga plays, responded swiftly to the verdict. In a statement issued on Tuesday, the club described the situation as difficult and confirmed that Daga would be excluded from matchday squads until further notice. The club’s chairman, Tarje Nordstrand Jacobsen, spoke to the gravity of the matter while refraining from pre-empting the outcome of any further legal process.
“This is a very demanding matter for all involved. As an employer, Molde Football Club has a responsibility to look after our employees in a responsible manner, while at the same time having great respect for the seriousness of the matter and for the burdens this entails for all parties concerned,” Jacobsen said.
“Based on the situation and the ongoing legal process, the club has decided that the player will not be part of the match squad until further notice. Out of consideration for the further legal process and all parties involved, Molde FK is not commenting further on the case at this time,” the chairman added.
The club’s handling of the case follows a pattern visible in European football administration, where clubs have increasingly opted for precautionary suspensions from playing duties pending the outcome of legal proceedings, rather than waiting for a final conviction. This approach reflects both the reputational risks clubs face and the broader social pressure on sporting institutions to take allegations of sexual misconduct seriously.
Notably, Molde had already moved in this direction before Tuesday’s verdict. The club had announced in December 2024 that Daga would be withdrawn from training and matches while the case was ongoing, a measure that predated the sentencing by several months. His return to training in the period before the verdict came down apparently followed some internal reassessment, though the club has not elaborated publicly on what prompted that adjustment.
Daniel Daga joined Molde FK ahead of the 2025 Norwegian football season, making 15 appearances for the club and scoring three goals before the case overshadowed his development. Those numbers represent a modest but promising start for a teenager making his way in a competitive top-flight league.
At international level, Daga’s profile had been shaped primarily by his association with Nigeria’s U-20 national side, the Flying Eagles. He was among the players selected for Nigeria’s squad at the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup, held in Argentina, and was notably the youngest member of that squad at the time of the tournament. The 2023 edition saw host nation Argentina lift the trophy, with Nigeria’s campaign ending in the group stage.
The Flying Eagles are one of Africa’s most decorated U-20 national sides, having won the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 1985 and 1993, the only African nation to have claimed the tournament on two occasions. Daga’s selection for the 2023 squad, coming as a teenager, placed him in a lineage of Nigerian youth players who have historically used tournaments of that level as launching pads for careers abroad.
The Daga case is not the first instance of a Nigerian footballer becoming entangled in a legal matter involving sexual offences while playing in Europe. The case raises, again, a structural question about how Nigerian football authorities, clubs, and player management systems prepare young footballers for life and legal responsibility abroad, particularly in jurisdictions with consent-based sexual offence laws that differ substantially from what they may have been accustomed to at home.
Nigeria’s football ecosystem has produced generations of players who have gone on to compete at the highest levels in European leagues. The country’s national teams, at both senior and junior levels, have long served as pipelines into professional football across Europe. However, critics and football administrators have repeatedly observed that the welfare and cultural education infrastructure around young Nigerian players exported to Europe remains inadequate. Players often move at 17 or 18 into environments where legal standards and institutional support structures differ dramatically from what they experienced growing up.
The Nigerian Football Federation has faced periodic scrutiny over its monitoring of players in the diaspora, particularly at the youth level. While the federation maintains a network of scouts and liaison officials, the gap between official oversight and the lived experience of young Nigerian footballers in foreign leagues has been widely documented by football journalists and welfare advocates.
Norway, in particular, has a significant community of African footballers. The Norwegian Eliteserien has long been a destination for young African players seeking a foothold in European professional football. The relatively lower cost of player acquisitions in Norway compared with England, Germany, or France makes it an attractive destination for agents and clubs looking to develop younger talent. That commercial logic, however, has not always been matched by equivalent investment in player welfare, language support, legal awareness, or cultural orientation.
The international conversation around football and sexual misconduct has grown significantly over the past decade. Cases involving players, coaches, and football administrators in Europe, South America, and Africa have prompted governing bodies including FIFA and UEFA to strengthen their integrity frameworks and require clubs to adopt clearer codes of conduct around player behaviour off the pitch.
In Spain, former Royal Spanish Football Federation president Luis Rubiales was convicted in 2024 of sexual assault over an unsolicited kiss he gave to Spain women’s player Jenni Hermoso during the medal ceremony at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. That case drew global attention, led to Rubiales resigning his post, and was widely seen as a landmark moment in football’s reckoning with issues of consent and institutional power. It also reinforced the point, directly relevant to the Daga case, that European courts are prepared to enforce consent-based standards firmly and without deference to the status or popularity of the accused.
In a different context, Brazilian forward Neymar Jr faced the termination of his endorsement deal with Nike in 2024, which the company confirmed was related to a sexual assault allegation made by a former employee. Nike’s decision underscored the extent to which off-pitch legal and ethical conduct has become integral to the commercial dimension of professional football.
These cases collectively reflect a broader environment in which football institutions, sponsors, and courts are increasingly less willing to treat the professional standing of a player as a mitigating consideration when allegations of sexual misconduct arise.
With Daga’s legal team having announced an intention to appeal, the case now enters a potentially prolonged second phase through the Norwegian court system. The timeline for appeal proceedings in Norway can vary, though cases at the Court of Appeal are typically heard within several months of the initial ruling. If the appeal is rejected, the six-month sentence will stand and be enforced. If the higher court finds merit in the defence’s arguments, the conviction could be overturned or the sentence modified.
Molde FK’s decision to keep Daga out of matchday squads until further notice means the player’s footballing future at the club remains suspended in uncertainty. Whether the club will maintain that position through the duration of an appeal, or revisit it depending on how the legal process develops, has not been specified.
At the level of Nigerian football, the case is likely to renew calls for more structured welfare and legal education programmes for young Nigerian players placed in European clubs, though whether those calls will translate into institutional action by the NFF or the clubs involved remains to be seen.