PARIS: Six men linked to Juventus and France midfielder Paul Pogba went on trial on Tuesday accused of blackmail, trying to extort millions of euros and holding the player at gunpoint.
The trial at a Paris criminal court has shocked the French football world – all the more so because the alleged perpetrators include three childhood friends and Pogba’s own brother Mathias.
Tuesday’s trial comes on top of professional woes for Pogba, whose career has struggled since France’s stunning 2018 World Cup win when he scored against Croatia in the final in Moscow.
He suffered repeated injuries that led to his departure from Manchester United in 2022, returning to Juventus where he remained on and off while undergoing treatment. The Turin club canceled his contract this month after serving a suspension until March 2025 for doping. Six defendants in Paris are accused of trying to extort 13 million euros ($13.5 million) from Pogba.
Mathias was the first to come to light in the matter, posting a video on social media in August 2022 promising revelations about his younger brother that were “potentially explosive”. In a subsequent clip, Mathias accused Paul Pogba of casting a bad spell on his France team-mate Kylian Mbappe.
Paul Pogba’s lawyers and his agent Raffaella Pimenta later said in a statement that the videos “came to the fore in threats and extortion attempts”. He had already filed criminal complaints in Italy and France in July that year.
Pogba told French investigators that in March 2022 he was “betrayed by childhood friends” from the Paris suburb where he and Mathias grew up. He accused them of demanding 13 million euros for “services rendered” before he was held at gunpoint by two hooded men with assault rifles and accused of not supporting them financially. put
Pogba said at the time that he only paid him 100,000 euros. The footballer said he was also pressured at the French national team’s training center in Clairefontaine, a home in Manchester and at Juventus’ training ground.