French police have opened an investigation into claims by World Cup winner Paul Pogba that he is the victim of a multimillion-euro blackmail plot by gangsters involving his brother, a source close to the case said on Sunday.
Pogba’s allegations came after his brother, Mathias, published a bizarre video online — in four languages (French, Italian, English and Spanish) — promising “great revelations” about the Juventus star.
A statement signed by his lawyers, his mother, Yeo Moriba, and agent Rafaela Pimenta said that the videos published on Saturday night “are unfortunately no surprise.”
Photo: AFP
“They are in addition to threats and extortion attempts by an organized gang against Paul Pogba,” the statement said. “The competent bodies in Italy and France were informed a month ago and there will be no further comments in relation to the ongoing investigation.”
Mathias Pogba, 32, promised “great revelations about [his] brother Paul Pogba and his agent Rafaela Pimenta,” who took over as head of the company of former agent Mino Raiola, who died in April.
He said the “whole world, as well as my brother’s fans, and even more so the French team and Juventus, my brother’s teammates and his sponsors deserve to know certain things.”
Also a professional soccer player, Mathias Pogba said that people needed to know what he knew to judge whether his brother “deserves his place in the French team and the honor of playing in the World Cup. If he deserves to be a starter at Juventus.”
“All this is likely to be explosive,” he said without adding any substance to his “revelations.”
Two sources close to the Pogba family said that large sums of money were being demanded from Paul Pogba if he wanted to avoid the dissemination of the allegedly compromising videos.
France Info reported that Paul Pogba told investigators he had been threatened by “childhood friends and two hooded men armed with assault rifles.”
They are demanding 13 million euros (US$12.93 million) from him for “services provided.”
A source close to the matter confirmed the France Info reports.
Kylian Mbappe’s name also came up in the affair. Paul Pogba told investigators that his blackmailers wanted to discredit him by claiming he asked a marabout (holy man) to cast a spell on the Paris Saint-Germain and France star, which Paul Pogba denies.
Late on Sunday, Mathias Pogba reacted to the day’s developments.
“Paul, you really wanted to shut me up and lie and send me to prison,” he wrote.
“You left me in the hole, while running away and you want to play the innocent. When all is said, people will see that there is no bigger coward, bigger traitor and bigger hypocrite than you on this earth,” he added.
Paul Pogba, who won the World Cup with France in 2018, returned to Juventus on a free transfer this summer after six years at Manchester United, and is sidelined with a knee injury.
The 29-year-old is expected to return to action next month.
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