Paul Pogba was the target of an attempt at blackmail by a group of his childhood friends, which oddly enough is rumoured to also include his older brother Mathias Pogba.
In a social media video posted over the weekend, Mathias—whose own professional football career included stints at several lower league clubs across Europe—promised to start publishing stories about Paul and Rafaela Pimenta, the woman he refers to as his “business mom” and who was prominently featured in the recent “Pogmentary” on Amazon Prime Video.
“I’m announcing that I’ll soon be making big revelations about my brother, Paul Pogba, his lawyer, his friend and his confidante Rafaela Pimenta, who Paul calls his ‘second mother’ as if one wasn’t enough,” Mathias said.
“For those who don’t know me, I’m a professional footballer and the big brother of world champion Paul, who has joined Juventus after a disappointing spell at Manchester United.”
“I’m making this video today because I think that the French, Spanish, English, and Italian people, as well as fans of my brother, Juventus, the French national team, his teammates and his sponsors, deserve to know certain things so they can decide in full knowledge of the facts whether he really deserves the respect, admiration, and love of the public.
“If he deserves his place in the French squad, if he deserves to play in the World Cup if, he deserves to start for Juventus, if he is a person worthy of our confidence and whether he is worthy of being a role model for the youth.”
Lawyers representing Paul, his mother and Pimenta, released a statement.
“Mathias Pogba’s recent statements on social media are unfortunately no surprise,” it read.
“They are in addition to threats and group-organised extortion attempts against Paul Pogba. The competent bodies in Italy and France were seized a month ago and there will be no further comments in relation to the ongoing investigation.”
Some of the shocking details have since been made public by France Info, including claims that Paul faced threats from old friends who were accompanied by masked men brandishing assault rifles.
The first incident is said to have occurred in March during a break for international play when Pogba travelled back to France to see his family in the Paris suburb of Lagny-sur-Marne, where he was raised. Paul is alleged to have been dragged into an apartment and charged with failing to provide for his childhood friends since turning pro. The €13 million demands were allegedly made in exchange for covertly ‘protecting’ him for the past 13 years since he joined Manchester United at the age of 16.
According to reports, Paul told authorities that he had kept in touch with his childhood friends and had never hesitated to lend them money when they needed it. However, it is claimed that he put an end to it in January after a friend who had been staying with him allegedly used a credit card to steal €200,000 from him.
