Paul Pogba’s brother Mathias and five other men will supposedly stand trial in an alleged extortion case that targeted the Frenchman in 2022.
Pogba, 31, filed a complaint after he was kidnapped and ransacked in March 2022 by two unidentified masked and outfitted men in Paris, who requested €13m (£10.98m) for ‘security administrations’.
Five individuals who are very close to Pogba were said to have put together a meeting which ended with Pogba being kidnapped.
After the first threat, the group were said to repeatedly intimidate Pogba and claim that he didn’t support them after becoming an international star in order to get him to pay, as per a report by Le Parisien.
After two years of investigations, the Paris investigator’s office affirmed that Mathias Pogba and the five men would stand trial.
Mathias – a former footballer who played with teams like Crawley, Crewe and Wrexham – will be tried ‘for the offenses of endeavored extortion and criminal conspiracy after he also posted threats on social media to share ‘explosive’ revelations about his brother.
Meanwhile, the five others are accused of ‘extortion by using violence, abduction and confinement to facilitate a crime or misdemeanour, as well as criminal conspiracy’.
According to the report, Pogba explained that he had previously assisted the group “voluntarily” and that the two judges in the case have good reason to believe that the five men tried to “force the player” to give them money.
Nonetheless, it was asserted that in September 2021, he would not give €7m (£5.9m) to three of them, before he removed himself from the group, prompting that critical night in March 2022.
The two judges said the kidnapping and robbing ‘was not, as some of the accused were able to maintain, a simple friendly meeting but rather facts falling under criminal law’.
Mathias was said to be absent from the alleged kidnapping plot, but is set to be tried for attempted extortion and criminal association of having subsequently ‘committed pressure against his brother Paul and his family in order to ensure payment of the sum of €13m (£10.98m)’.
He subsequently spent three months in prison between September and December 2022 as police investigated his role.
Reports in the French media then also revealed how Pogba told investigators that the alleged extortionists were attempting to discredit him by making a series of claims.
This included Mathias claiming Pogba had hired a witch doctor to put a spell on his France team-mate Kylian Mbappe, while he also accused him of having ‘abandoned’ his family. Pogba denied the claims.
During the investigation, the 31-year-old also revealed he had paid €100,000 (£84,423) to the organised group.
Pogba, who plays for Juventus but is currently fighting against a four-year ban for doping, originally filed a complaint with Italian prosecutors in relation to this case, with it also taken up by French prosecutors in September 2022.
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All six individuals denied their guilt in the affair, instead insisting they were ‘victims’ of the two armed robbers, while they also claimed they were assaulted after Pogba refused to pay the extortion demands.
Mathias released various videos about Paul across his social media platforms during 2022 saying there would be ‘great revelations’ about his brother.
Meanwhile, Mathias explained during the probe that he had been manipulated by the other suspects and was keen to reconcile with his brother, while he also insisted his actions had been motivated by a fear for his and his family’s safety.
L’Equipe had previously reported that Pogba told judges in the investigation about the impact the affair had on his playing career.
Pogba also admitted that he feared that the chaos would hurt his friends and family. Now, more than two years later, the six people involved will face trial.
