Mathias Pogba, 34, has been waiting for five days, crazy in his anthracite suit, moving his shoulders or turning his neck, as if to relieve tension. Sitting in the front row of the courtroom of the Paris Court where the trial for kidnapping and extortion against his brother Paul Pogba is being held, he must have heard the hearings of the five other defendants, trying to exonerate himself from an operation worthy of Nickel-plated feet.
When he finally came forward, Tuesday December 3, it was to try to justify the broadcast, in August 2022, on social networks of videos where he threatened the football international to make revelations intended to ruin his career. In the previous weeks, he had repeatedly put pressure on his brother and their mother so that the player, then at Juventus Turin, would pay the 13 million euros that had been demanded from him by armed men in the night. from March 19 to March 20, 2022.
Was it a deeply rooted jealousy for years over the success of his little brother that led him to act? Or his credulity in the face of the stories of the armed attack staged by friends? The question has continued to agitate the debates, while in the preceding days the various accused have endeavored to lend credence to their story of unknown bandits bursting into a friendly meeting which was not intended to scare the player into paying a large sum of money.
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The prosecution file leaves little doubt: Mathias Pogba immediately believed his friends who told him that his brother had agreed to pay a ransom. He was furious that he didn't keep his word. He is in contact with the group of friends from the Renardière district in Roissy-en-Brie (Seine-et-Marne) who feels “forgotten” by his champion and their resentment echoes his own: for several months, his brother refuses to send him money even though he himself is without a contract.
“Crazy”
Mathias Pogba is a bit like the failed footballer of the siblings. At the age of 11, he was detected and selected with his twin brother, Florentin, to attend a sports-studies boarding school, then recruited by the Celta Vigo club in Spain. But less gifted, he then left for Quimper and joined various small second and third division clubs in England, Italy and Spain. He played for the international team in Guinea before becoming a sports columnist and owner of a barber shop with his twin. Like other members of the family, he is used to getting financial help from Paul who, for his part, competes among the best international players.
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