August 30 – French police have opened an investigation into claims by midfield star Paul Pogba that he is being threatened and targeted for extortion.
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 ace.
A statement signed by Paul Pogba’s lawyers, his mother Yeo Moriba and current agent Rafaela Pimenta said that the videos published on Saturday night “are unfortunately no surprise”.
“They are in addition to threats and extortion attempts by an organised gang against Paul Pogba,” read the statement.
“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 had declared that the “whole world, as well as my brother’s fans, and even more so the French team and Juventus, my brother’s team-mates and his sponsors deserve to know certain things.”.
Also a professional footballer, he said people needed to know what he knew in order to judge whether his brother “deserves his place in the French team and the honour of playing in the World Cup.”
“All this is likely to be explosive,” he concluded without further details.
French-based reports claim large sums of money are being demanded from Paul Pogba if he wants to avoid the dissemination of the allegedly compromising videos.
Public broadcaster France-Info reported that Pogba told police that a group of childhood friends demanded €13 million and repeatedly intimidated him, claiming he didn’t support them after he became an international star.
The Paris prosecutor’s office has confirmed it opened an investigation earlier this month into attempted organised extortion, which is being handled by anti-corruption police. It would not provide further details involving an ongoing investigation.
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 currently sidelined with a knee injury.
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