Former Brentford striker Ivan Toney charged with assault after Soho nightclub incident

The striker whose goals helped fire Brentford into the Premier League has been charged with assault causing actual bodily harm following an alleged incident in December

The Metropolitan Police say the charge relates to an alleged headbutt at a venue on Wardour Street, which has since closed, on 6 December last year. Toney, 30, from Northampton, was arrested at the scene on suspicion of two counts of assault and one count of affray. He was formally charged on 31 July and is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 24 September.

A spokesperson for Toney said he was ‘naturally shocked’ by the charge but wants the chance to clear his name in court.

The timing is awkward for his international career. Toney was part of England’s squad at this summer’s World Cup, and his court date falls two days before the Three Lions face Spain in a Nations League match at Wembley, with his place in Thomas Tuchel’s squad now reportedly in doubt.

Toney will be a familiar face for many readers from his time at Brentford, where he spent four seasons as one of the club’s most prolific forwards. He signed from Peterborough United in August 2020, replacing Ollie Watkins after his move to Aston Villa, and scored 10 goals in his first 10 league games.

He went on to set a new Championship record of 31 goals in a single season, adding two more in the play-offs as Brentford beat Swansea City 2-0 at Wembley to reach the Premier League for the first time in the club’s history.

He kept scoring after promotion, reaching 20 Premier League goals in the 2022-23 season and earning his first England call-up that March. By the time he left, Toney had scored 72 goals in 141 appearances for Brentford across all competitions. Thomas Frank, the manager who signed him and oversaw his rise, called him ‘a Brentford legend’ when he departed.

This isn’t the first time Toney has made headlines for reasons beyond his goals however. In May 2023, the FA banned Toney from all football for eight months after he admitted 232 breaches of its betting rules.

Most of the breaches dated from 2017 to 2021, spanning a loan spell from Newcastle United at Wigan Athletic and Scunthorpe United, during which Toney placed 13 bets on his own team to lose, though he did not play in any of the matches concerned. The independent commission that heard his case was told by a psychiatrist that Toney had a gambling addiction.

He was fined £50,000 alongside the ban, returned to training that September, and scored on his comeback against Nottingham Forest in January 2024.

Toney left Brentford for Saudi Arabian club Al-Ahli in a £40 million deadline-day move in August 2024, and has continued to score regularly in the Saudi Pro League since, helping Al-Ahli win the AFC Champions League Elite in his first season there.