Six males linked to France midfielder Paul Pogba, together with considered one of his brothers, went on trial in Paris on Tuesday accused of blackmail, tried extortion of hundreds of thousands of euros and holding the participant at gunpoint.
The case on the Paris prison court docket has shocked the French soccer world — all of the extra so as a result of the alleged perpetrators embrace three childhood buddies and Pogba’s personal brother Mathias.
Tuesday’s trial comes on high {of professional} woes for Pogba, whose profession has struggled since France’s spectacular 2018 World Cup win when he scored in opposition to Croatia within the Moscow remaining.
He suffered by means of repeated accidents and patchy kind that led to his 2022 departure from Manchester United, returning to Juventus the place he remained out and in of remedy.
The Turin membership this month cancelled his contract following his 18-month suspension till March 2025 for doping.
The six defendants in Paris are accused of making an attempt to squeeze 13 million euros ($13.5 million) out of Pogba.
All, together with Mathias, and one defendant who has been remanded in custody, had been current in court docket because the trial opened. Paul Pogba himself was not current and his legal professionals have mentioned he is not going to attend the trial.
Defence legal professionals requested for the trial to be adjourned on procedural grounds with the court docket as a result of rule later.
Mathias was the one to go public within the case, publishing a video on social media in August 2022 promising revelations about his youthful brother that had been “more likely to be explosive”.
In a subsequent clip, Mathias accused Paul Pogba of casting an evil spell on his France teammate Kylian Mbappe.
Paul Pogba’s legal professionals and his agent Rafaela Pimenta mentioned in an announcement later that the movies “got here on high of threats and makes an attempt at extortion”.
He had already filed prison complaints in Italy and France in July that 12 months.
– ‘Tricked by childhood buddies’ –
Pogba informed French investigators he had in March 2022 been “tricked by childhood buddies” from the gritty Paris suburb the place he and Mathias grew up.
He accused them of snatching him earlier than he was held at gunpoint by two hooded males with assault rifles, demanding 13 million euros for “providers rendered” and blaming him for not serving to them financially.
Pogba mentioned on the time that he had paid them solely 100,000 euros.
The footballer mentioned he had additionally been pressured on the France nationwide crew’s coaching centre in Clairefontaine, at considered one of his properties in Manchester, and at Juventus’s coaching floor.
Pogba added that he had additionally paid a invoice of greater than 57,000 euros that the identical buddies had racked up on the Adidas retailer on Paris’s glitzy Champs-Elysees avenue.
“It’s been actually tough for me off the pitch, what’s occurred, it’s been particularly exhausting mentally,” Pogba informed broadcaster Al-Jazeera on the finish of final season.
“Cash adjustments folks, it’s the reality, it may well destroy a household, begin a battle.”
Pogba’s lawyer Pierre-Jean Douvier declined to remark forward of the case when contacted by AFP.
His buddies have all denied the allegations.
That they had “a pleasant relationship, with chats, joking round, and alongside that, sure, perhaps Paul Pogba gave them a serving to hand,” mentioned Karim Morand-Lahouazi, a lawyer for one of many accused.
A police overview of the case seen by AFP calls the childhood buddies and different acquaintances of Pogba “a prison crew… with the target of extracting 13 million euros from Paul, who had lower them off financially” early in 2022.
The accused declare they themselves had been additionally victims of the hooded males who held Pogba at gunpoint, and who’ve by no means been recognized.
5 of the accused face costs of extortion, kidnapping and forming a prison gang.
Mathias Pogba, who was not current the night time his brother was snatched, is suspected of “pressuring his brother Paul and his household to make sure the fee of the sum of 13 million euros” and is charged with tried extortion.
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