Six men connected to Juventus and France midfielder Paul Pogba are set to stand trial starting Tuesday, facing charges of blackmail, attempted extortion of millions of euros, and holding the player at gunpoint.
The case, which is being heard at the Paris criminal court, has sent shockwaves through the French football community. The accused include three childhood friends and Pogba’s own brother, Mathias.
This trial comes at a difficult time for Pogba, as he is already grappling with professional setbacks. Juventus recently terminated his contract after he was suspended until March 2025 for a doping violation.
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The accused are alleged to have attempted to extort 13 million euros ($13.5 million) from Pogba. Mathias Pogba was the one to bring the matter to light, posting a video on social media in August 2022. In the video, Mathias teased revelations about his brother that he claimed would be “explosive,” though he provided few details.
Subsequent clips saw Mathias accuse Paul of casting an evil spell on France teammate Kylian Mbappé. Paul Pogba’s legal team responded by condemning the videos as part of a campaign of threats and extortion orchestrated by a criminal gang, confirming that Paul had already filed complaints in both Italy and France by July 2022.
In his testimony to French investigators, Pogba claimed that in March 2022, he had been lured by childhood friends from his neighbourhood in Roissy-en-Brie, near Paris, who then held him at gunpoint. The assailants, masked and armed with assault rifles, demanded 13 million euros, citing “services rendered” and accusing Pogba of failing to provide financial support since his rise to fame.
Pogba stated that he only paid them 100,000 euros and was further pressured at various locations, including the French national team’s training centre in Clairefontaine, his home in Manchester, and Juventus’ facilities. He also revealed that he had covered a 57,000-euro bill run up at an Adidas store on Paris’s Champs-Élysées by the same group.
Paul Pogba’s lawyer, Pierre-Jean Douvier, declined to comment ahead of the trial when contacted by AFP.
A police overview of the case seen by AFP calls the childhood friends and other acquaintances of Paul Pogba “a criminal team… with the objective of extracting 13 million euros from Paul, who had cut them off financially” early in 2022.
All of the accused deny the allegations, claiming they themselves were victims of the hooded men who held Paul Pogba at gunpoint who have never been identified.
All five face charges of extorsion, kidnapping and forming a criminal gang.
Mathias Pogba, who was not present the night his brother was snatched, is suspected of “pressuring his brother Paul and his family to ensure the payment of the sum of 13 million euros”.
He is charged with attempted extorsion and forming a criminal gang.
Mathias Pogba’s lawyer Mbeko Tabula said he would not comment until the end of the trial.
Mathias claimed months ago that he was only a “puppet” in the extorsion affair, making an emotional appeal to see his brother again.
“I hope our bond will be strengthened again” through a meeting, he said at the time.
The so-called “Pogba affair” has put in the spotlight brotherly ties poisoned by competition and money, but also the difficulty professional footballers can face keeping up friendships with those who knew them before their success.
“Despite everything that’s happened, they’ll always have a place in my heart… they were like my family,” Paul Pogba said in September 2023 after he and the defendants were jointly questioned by investigators.
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