Premier League stars involved in physical altercation with racist van driver revealed

 The Premier League is set to begin on Friday, August 21, when the reigning champions, Arsenal, host Coventry City, who will embark on their first campaign in the English top flight since 2001. While players from across the 20 clubs set to compete in the Premier League this season will have given this their full attention to prepare for the campaign, for two of the division’s stars, they have been involved in a court case.

It has now been revealed that Brentford’s Kevin Schade and Vitaly Janelt were the two players who fought off a drunk man who racially abused a Nigerian security guard while travelling home from a match against Leeds United. As reported by the Telegraph, a court heard that David Wheeler was left with a black eye when Schade and Janelt defended Israel Ilesanmi after an incident in Richmond, London.

Wheeler, who had drunk “about seven” cans of beer, had targeted Ilesanmi because he thought he was a lookout for burglars; he had filmed the security guard calling him a ‘c***’ and questioned why he was there, as he was not English. Schade and Janelt intervened before Wheeler turned on them as he told the players, ‘F*** off, German f****** pricks’.

Kevin Schade and Vitaly Janelt’s Brentford careers

Janelt joined the London club when they were in the Championship and was an integral part of the club, gaining promotion to the Premier League in 2021, as he operated in defensive midfield. Since Brentford’s promotion, he has been an ever-present in the first team across the last five campaigns, having made 202 appearances for the Bees in the English top flight, and is set to add to this in the upcoming season.

Meanwhile, Schade would join the club ahead of their second season in the Premier League on loan from Freiburg before joining permanently in the summer of 2023. The attacker has featured across four seasons in the English top flight for Brentford, having made 102 appearances, hitting the net on 21 occasions.

The pair will be integral once again to Brentford’s Premier League campaign for the 2026/27 season, as the club looks to make history by securing European football for the first time ever, after Keith Andrews’ side missed out on this achievement last year on goal difference.