POGBA CASE. Mathias Pogba and four other people are in custody in the Paul Pogba case. Here’s what we know.
New turn in the Paul Pogba affair. This Wednesday, September 14, his brother and four other people were placed in police custody in Paris. The four men are relatives of Paul Pogba, one of whom was preparing to leave the country according to information from France Info. Still according to the media, the four people arrested are childhood friends of the French international. Among these people, a man in his forties has a very long criminal record and has already served time in prison for an attempted homicide.
One of the men taken into custody is suspected of having asked Paul Pogba to follow him to the apartment where the footballer claims to have been sequestered. He is also suspected of having demanded a deposit of three million euros out of the 13 million required but also of having brought in two hooded men armed with assault rifles, still according to France Info. At present, everyone involved denies the facts.
1- Mathias Pogba’s intriguing message
The Pogba affair begins on Saturday August 27. That day Mathias Pogba, 32, published a series of intriguing messages on social networks. Paul Pogba’s older brother then promised “big revelations” about his younger brother, 29, putting the football world in feverish expectation. In this video broadcast in four languages (French, Italian, English and Spanish), Mathias Pogba, himself a professional footballer, announced that “the whole world”, like Juventus Turin, the Italian club where his brother returned this summer after a first stint between 2012 and 2016, and six seasons at Manchester United, “deserve to know certain things in order to decide in full knowledge of the facts whether he (Paul Pogba) really deserves admiration, respect, his place in the team of France, if he is a trustworthy person”. “All of this risks being explosive,” he concluded, without further details.
2- The press release from Paul Pogba’s lawyers
Sunday August 28, Paul Pogba counterattacked via a press release signed by his lawyers and his agent Rafaela Pimenta, who has just taken over the company of Mino Raiola, the recently deceased star agent. “Mathias Pogba’s recent statements on social media unfortunately come as no surprise. They come on top of threats and organized gang extortion attempts against Paul Pogba,” the statement said. “The competent authorities in Italy and France were seized a month ago and there will be no further comments on the ongoing investigation”, continued the representatives of Paul Pogba in this press release.
3- Details of the alleged extortion case
A source familiar with the matter told AFP that an investigation was opened in France in early August and entrusted to the services of the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police (DCPJ). According to France Info, Paul Pogba confided during the hearings to investigators from the Central Office for the Fight against Organized Crime that he would have “in particular been trapped by childhood friends and two hooded men armed with assault rifles”. They would have claimed 13 million euros from him for “service rendered”, accusing him of not having helped them financially since he became a professional player.
Still according to France Info, Paul Pogba, currently sidelined due to a right knee injury, assured investigators that he had also been bullied several times in Manchester and as far as the Juventus training center. Among the suspects, he allegedly claimed to have recognized his brother Mathias. According to sports columnist Daniel Riolo, speaking onon BFMTV this weekend, Paul Pogba was even briefly kidnapped in March 2022, on the sidelines of a gathering of the Blues.
4- Kylian Mbappé marabouted?
In this case, the name of the French football star Kylian Mbappe also appears without his knowledge: Paul Pogba explained to investigators that “his blackmailers wanted to discredit him by broadcasting messages in which he would have asked a marabout from his family circle to cast a spell” on the PSG striker, which the player denies. A video on a USB key was notably mentioned in the press without any image having been revealed at this stage. Sunday evening, Mathias Pogba gave it a layer. “Kylian, now do you understand? I have nothing negative against you, my words are for your good, everything is true and proven, the marabout is known! Sorry about this brother, a so-called Muslim thoroughly in witchcraft , it is never good to have a hypocrite and a traitor near you!”
5- Mathias Pogba’s reaction
For his part, Mathias Pogba maintains his accusations, still without formulating them: “I hope that you will not be fooled by an attempt to manipulate the media and the authorities. When you are famous the world is with you, the authorities listen more carefully. But that doesn’t put you above the law, the police are not your minions!” he wrote on Twitter on Sunday.
Sunday evening, he reacted to the first revelations about his brother’s hearing by the police by adding a few messages on Twitter. “Paul, you really wanted to shut me up, even if it means lying and sending me to prison,” Mathias wrote. “You left me in the hole while fleeing and you want to play the innocent, he added, when all is said people will see that there is no more cowardly, more traitor and more hypocritical than you on this earth. It’s not a question of money: You implicated me in spite of myself, I almost died because of you, you left me in the hole while fleeing and you want to play the innocent. When everything will be said people will see that there is no more coward, more traitor and more hypocrite than you on this earth.”
6- 100,000 euros donated in cash
According to information from RMC Sport, Paul Pogba has already paid 100,000 euros to individuals who threatened and robbed him in a Parisian apartment. Childhood friends as well as the big brother of the French international would have claimed 13 million euros from him. A sum to be given “to those who have protected him for years”, and “ensured his safety”, believe the extortionists, according to what Paul Pogba would have explained to the investigators. According to the media, the French would have liked to give this sum, but his bank would only have accepted a withdrawal of an amount of 100,000 euros, forcing him to write a paper, assuring that he will give the rest of the sum. .
7- The testimony of Paul Pogba’s mother
Paul Pogba’s mother, according to information from RMC Sport on August 30, was questioned by investigators as a witness after the opening of the investigation. For the moment, nothing has filtered on the words of the latter in the face of the tearing of her sons.
8- A new load from his brother
On the night of Tuesday August 30 to Wednesday August 31, Mathias Pogba released new video content, once again charging and accusing his brother. This is because of my brother, who, because of money and fame, lost track of reality a long time ago. People talk about settling things in the family, but if this brother does not want to talk and persists in destroying the family, what choice is there?” Also, adds Mathias Pogba, in his relentlessness to discredit all those who know his little secrets, Paul claims that the money he gave to his childhood friends was extorted, easy for the media to say, but what do we do if this money is justified by official and registered documents, and that ‘there’s evidence of a consensual gesture!? It’s not the same, is it?’
9- Yeo Moriba, leader of the gang?
According to RMC Sport, the mother of Paul and Mathias Pogba was also heard by the investigators and testified on the case. Yeo Moriba was heard by investigators as a witness after the opening of a preliminary investigation on August 3 of the leader of organized gang extortion and attempt. Asked by Le Figaro, the president of Tours FC Jean-Marc Ettori does not say he is surprised at all and questions the role of the mother, “leader of the gang”. “The mother of Paul, Mathias and Florentin (the third brother, twin of Mathias), Yeo Moriba, is “the gang leader, the one who pilots everything, the one who says yes, the one who says no”. At the time, Mathias Pogba had been proposed to the club. After a first refusal, a counter proposal had been sent by the clan. “We were told to take Mathias and Paul will pay his salary, his charges. And in addition he offers you to come and play a (friendly) match in Tours, and he will come twice to see his brother play in Tours.” The sum due to the club – a total of 80,000 euros – has never been paid. “We never had the money” he explains to our colleagues.
“On August 3, 2022, following a complaint filed on July 16, 2022 by Mr. Paul Pogba with the Turin public prosecutor’s office, the Paris public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into the heads of extortion in an organized gang, attempted extortion in an organized gang and participation in a criminal association with a view to committing a crime, relating to various facts of which Mr. Pogba would have been the victim between March and July 2022”, writes the Paris prosecutor in a press release. “At the end of the first investigations. With this new tab open, the judge will be able to determine if there is indeed an offense that could lead to criminal sanctions.