Confusion reigns over latest Michael Schumacher reports
A spokesperson for Michael Schumacher and his family has hit back at claims he is being moved from his home in Switzerland.
Swiss news magazine L’Illustre reported this week that the seven-time F1 world champion, who sustained serious head injuries in a 2013 skiing accident, was being moved to a vast property in the village of Andratx on Mallorca, recently purchased by his wife Corinna.
A number of media around the world have picked up the story in recent days, prompting the family to exit its habitual silence on all private manners.
“The Schumacher family does not plan to move to Mallorca,” family spokeswoman Sabine Kehm told AFP in an email.
L’Illustre based its story on a comment from Andratx mayor Katia Rouarch, saying she could “officially confirm” the 49-year-old German sportsman would be settling in the village.
“Everything is being put in place to accommodate him,” she was quoted by the magazine as saying.
‘Misunderstanding’
But the municipality on Thursday issued a statement maintaining that Rouarch had been misquoted, “probably (as a) result of misinterpretation or misunderstanding, perhaps due to language translation.”
In its statement, the Andratx city council said the mayor had confirmed to L’Illustre that the Schumacher family had recently bought a house there.
“She did however not give any information about a potential relocation of Michael Schumacher and/or his family in our municipality of Andratx,” it said, stressing that the mayor “doesn’t have any information about it.”
“The only thing that Rouarch declared to the journalists was that ‘in case the family decides to move here, we will be prepared for their arrival’,” the city council said.
“With this communication we want to reiterate these words were meant just in case the family come here. Obviously, in that case, Michael Schumacher and his family would be welcomed in our municipality.”
It appears that the vast property that Corinna Schumacher reportedly bought from Real Madrid president Florentino Perez in Andratx for some 30 million euros ($34 million) is meant to be used as a vacation home for her and the couple’s two adult children.
Schumacher fell and hit his head against a rock while skiing in the French Alps with his family in December 2013.
He spent time in hospital in Grenoble and Lausanne before being brought to his home on the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland in September 2014 to continue his rehabilitation.
Schumacher’s family has avoided providing any details about his health, insisting it is not a public issue, and his current condition remains a mystery.
