Former Germany international Christoph Metzelder is to stand trial on child pornography charges. 

The ex-Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid defender has been charged with 29 instances of distributing child pornography, and of possession of child pornography.

The charges were confirmed by the Dusseldorf District Court on Monday.

In a statement they said his indictment in August 2020 was "based, among other things, on the confession of the applicant, the testimony of a witness and image files".

Metzelder had been under investigation since the autumn of 2019 following allegations that he sent images of illegal content to a recipient in Hamburg via WhatsApp.

According to their statements, investigators found 297 child pornography files on Metzelder's mobile phone.

Between July 9 and September 1 2019, the 40-year old is said to have sent ten images to one witness, sixteen images and two videos to a second witness, and one image with child pornography content to a third witness via WhatsApp.

In September 2020 it was reported that Metzelder had made a confession to public prosecutors, but the extent of that confession was unknown.

Metzelder stepped down as president of his hometown club TuS Haltern am See when the allegations first came to light in 2019.

During his playing career, Metzelder played at both the 2002 and 2006 World Cups for Germany, reaching the final in Japan in '02.

His trial is due to begin at Dusseldorf District Court on April 29.

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