Mathias Pogba and five other men were convicted in the extortion case against Paul Pogba in Paris.
Soccer star Paul Pogba’s brother Mathias Pogba has received a three-year sentence for attempted extortion. Among other things, the news covered the matter BBC.
The sentence was handed down in a Paris court on Thursday.
Mathias Pogba avoids prison, but has to wear an electronic monitoring device for a year. The last two years of the sentence are suspended. In addition, he was fined 20,000 euros.
Five other men received prison terms of 4 to 8 years.
Mathias Pogba’s lawyer considered the punishment very harsh and commented For Le Parisienthat the sentence will probably be appealed.
Mathias Pogba and the other convicts had tried to extort 13 million euros from Paul Pogba in 2022. According to the media, in order to get the payment, they had also pressured the rest of the football star’s family.
The other participants received sentences for, among other things, blackmail and kidnapping.
The events that led to the verdicts began on March 19, 2022, when Paul Pogba had gone to an apartment in his home region in Seine-et-Marne. At that time, he represented Manchester United in the English Premier League.
At that time, he had been ambushed and two men had threatened him with weapons and demanded a payment of 13 million euros.
Paul Pogba, 31, has said that he was “fooled by his childhood friends”.
In autumn 2023 he quoth that he considered ending his career after falling victim to an organized gang, including his Mathias brother.
– When there is money, you have to be careful. Money changes people. It can break up a family. It can cause war.
– Sometimes I just thought: I don’t want any more money. I just don’t want to play anymore. I just want to be with normal people so they love me for who I am – not for my fame or money.
Mathias Pogba, 34, is a former footballer who played in the lower leagues in England and Spain, as well as five caps for Guinea’s national team.
Paul Pogba, one of the key players in France’s 2018 world champion team, was caught using testosterone in the fall of 2023. Pogba’s doping sentence was shortened from four years to 18 months this fall after an appeal, so he will be fit to play on March 11, 2025.
Pogba has been in the headlines in recent days, as has Chelsea’s Ukrainian star Mihailo Mudryk is in a doping jacket. Meldonium was found in his sample.
According to the Daily Mail Mudryk has hired the same law firm, Morgan Sports Law, that handled Paul Pogba’s complaint in his doping saga.