AS a multi-millionaire and World Cup winner, Paul Pogba must have hoped he had left the tough crime-infested Parisian suburbs of his youth far behind.
One of the most gifted football players of his generation, he lived in a £3million Cheshire mansion and was a shining star of the Manchester United midfield.
Yet while visiting his family in Lagny-sur-Marne, near Disneyland Paris, he alleges that the dark side of the high-rise estates that ring the French capital caught up with him.
The French national hero says he was held at gunpoint by an extortion gang — and that one of the plotters was his own brother, Mathias.
Then, in a bizarre twist, journeyman footballer Mathias this weekend accused his famous brother of paying for a witch doctor to curse talismanic French teammate Kylian Mbappe
Paul has denied the claims but Mathias — who played for a string of British clubs — labelled his sibling “a so-called Muslim deep in witchcraft”.
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Former Wrexham forward Mathias said of his superstar brother: “When everything is said, people will see that there is no bigger coward, bigger traitor and bigger hypocrite than you on this earth.”
Paul’s extortion claims — and his brother’s witchcraft allegations — have left the football world in deep shock.
With less than three months until the World Cup starts in Qatar, there are fears that the furore could disrupt France’s defence of their crown.
Paul, 29 — who has been suffering with a knee injury — has been the lynchpin of Les Bleus in midfield, with 91 caps and 11 goals.
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MASKED MEN
But the astonishing saga is said to have begun in March, before his transfer from United to Juventus. On a visit to his homeland for an international between France and the Ivory Coast on March 25, Paul went to see his family in Lagny-sur-Marne.
The Parisian suburb is where he was born to Guinean parents in 1993. His twin elder brothers Florentin and Mathias both also forged careers as professional footballers, but it was Paul, the soccer prodigy, who shone.
He first joined Manchester United from Le Havre as a 16-year-old in 2009 before being allowed to leave for Juventus on a free transfer in 2012.
But he returned to Old Trafford for a record transfer fee of £89million in 2016, playing 154 times in that spell and scoring 29 goals.
In 2018 he won a World Cup winners’ medal with his international teammates, scoring in the final as France beat Croatia 4-2 in Moscow.
This summer his return to Italian giants Juventus followed patchy form at United. Yet Paul says he was facing blackmail threats before leaving Old Trafford.
On his trip to Lagny-sur-Marne in March he told police he was confronted by a gang that included friends from his childhood and teenage years as well as two masked men armed with assault rifles.
The midfielder — married to Bolivian model Maria Zulay Salaues — then claimed he was forced to accompany them to a flat in nearby Roissy-en-Brie, where they demanded more than £11million for “protecting him”.
With the gang demanding £2.6million immediately, Paul tried to withdraw the money but his bank declined to authorise such a large amount.
Radio station France Info reported that the blackmailers had to settle for £85,000 in cash instead.
When the gang continued to try to extort money, Paul filed a criminal complaint through his lawyers.
He told cops that when the gang tailed him to Manchester and Turin, where Juventus play, his brother Mathias was present among the alleged conspirators.
When everything is said, people will see that there is no bigger coward, bigger traitor and bigger hypocrite than you on this earth.
Mathias Pogba
An investigating source said: “He claims to the police that he recognised his brother, Mathias Pogba, among the suspects.”
When cops interviewed Paul he told them he had remained close to his childhood friends and that he had tried to help when they faced financial difficulties. But he told how he had to kick an unidentified friend out of his house in Manchester in January after discovering that he had spent £170,000 on his credit card.
The Paris prosecutor’s office has confirmed an investigation into “extortion attempts by an organised gang” has been under way since August 3. Extortion carries a maximum sentence of 20 years under French law.
Brother Mathias, 32, has vehemently denied the blackmail claims in social media posts, saying his brother was lying to have him imprisoned.
Mathias, who has also played for Crewe Alexandra, Crawley Town and Partick Thistle, posted a video of himself saying he had “explosive revelations” about his more gifted footballing brother, who he said did not deserve to play for France.
And he alleged Paul paid an African witch doctor to cast a spell to injure Kylian Mbappe, the France and Paris Saint-Germain striker, and that there were videos to prove it.
Enquiry sources claim millions in cash were demanded in return for the alleged videos remaining secret.
Paul’s agent and lawyers deny such videos exist, but Mathias responded in a social media post: “Kylian, now do you understand?
“I have no negative feeling towards you, my words are for your good, everything is true and proven, the witch doctor is known! Sorry about this brother, a so-called Muslim deep in witchcraft, it’s never good to have a hypocrite and a traitor near you!”
Paul’s lawyers, his mother, Yeo Moriba, and agent Rafaela Pimenta, said in a statement that Mathias’s social media videos “are unfortunately no surprise”.
NOT SUPERHEROES
They said the videos were in addition to “threats and extortion attempts”.
Mathias and Paul were thought to be close and were often pictured together.
He claims to the police that he recognised his brother, Mathias Pogba, among the suspects.
An investigating source on Paul Pogba
But elder sibling Mathias has posted on social media: “My little brother is finally starting to show his true face.
“Since it was he who started talking, to lie to the police and who brought out the information, you can’t blame me. Paul, you really wanted to shut me up completely, to lie and send me to prison, I suspected it.
“Now it’s true, my version of the facts actually happened and, unlike you, I have enough to prove my words and your lies.
“I’ll tell you again: Brother, manipulating people is not good! It’s not about money: You implicated me in spite of myself, I almost died because of you, you left me in a hole and you want to play the innocent one.”
Mathias, who has struggled to escape his younger brother’s shadow, continued: “The French, English, Italian and Spanish public — in other words, the whole world — as well as my brother’s fans, and even more so the France team and Juventus, my brother’s team-mates and his sponsors deserve to know certain things.
“In order to make an in- formed decision if he deserves the admiration, respect and love of the public. If he deserves his place in the France team and the honour of playing in the World Cup.
“If he deserves to be a starter at Juventus. If he is a trustworthy person, that any player deserves to have at his side.” French football chiefs admit the legal case could rumble on. Noel Le Graet, president of the French Football Federation, said: “We’re just at the beginning of this affair.
“No one has been in court as far as I know. At this stage, there are just rumours.
“I love Paul. I hope that this does not raise questions about his place in the French national team.”
In the past, Paul has told how he battled depression while playing for United. He claims a fallout with then United boss Jose Mourinho — which left him stripped of the vice-captaincy in September 2018 — led to mental health problems.
He said: “Because you make money, you always have to be happy? It’s not like that, life. But in football, it does not pass, we are however not superheroes, but only human beings.”
Though facing a battle to be fully fit for the World Cup, he remains a key player for France. According to a French Football Federation source, the saga is “tearing up France players” in the run-up to the World Cup.
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The source said: “Everyone is talking about it, because it involves two star players. It’s the only topic of conversation of the France team, as they try to disentangle the true from the false, to try to work out if an audio recording or a video actually exists.”
Les Bleus fans will hope the poisonous feud tearing Paul’s family apart will only drive him on to greater footballing heights.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
