Paul Pogba Paid Sh12M To Blackmailers, Report

French footballer Paul Pogba paid €100,000 (Sh11,995,000) to a blackmailer after revealing that he had been threatened by an organized gang whose members included his childhood friends and elder brother Mathias, FranceInfo reported Tuesday.

The public radio network, which broke the news on Pogba, reported that he had already paid the sum to his extortionists in March this year. Around this time, Pogba was forcefully taken to an apartment in Paris by his “friends,” where they demanded €13 million from him in the presence of two men armed with assault rifles. The group threatened him to pay €3 million immediately in exchange for the services rendered by his friends, including “protecting” him discreetly for the last 13 years.

The report said Pogba initially refused to pay the amount but agreed under persistent threats. His bank denied the €3 million transaction, however, only allowing him to withdraw €100,000. Pogba reportedly paid the sum to his friends and signed a paper agreeing to pay the rest of the amount.

The latest scandal to hit the French football team emerged after French authorities on Monday confirmed launching an investigation into charges made by Pogba of attempted extortion.

Pogba, 29, plays for the French national football team and Italy’s Juventus football club.

The confirmation came in the wake of Mathias Pogba’s posts on social media regarding “explosive revelations” about his younger footballer brother, his agent Rafaela Pimenta, and his France teammate and Paris-Saint-Germain striker Kylian Mbappe on Saturday.

Pogba’s lawyers admitted in a statement that he was receiving “threats and attempts at extortion in an organized gang.” FranceInfo, quoting sources, said Pogba had already confided to investigators from the Central Office for the Fight against Organized Crime that he was trapped by a gang that included his childhood friends and Mathias.