Mathias Pogba arrested for blackmailing Paul Pogba

Mathias, Paul Pogba’s elder brother has been charged along with four others, for criminal conduct.

Mathias was formally charged with extortion and criminal association on Saturday evening in Paris and placed in custody after the decision of the magistrate.

Mathias, along with for others (aged between 27 and 36) tried to extort money from the Juventus midfielder.

“We will appeal this decision,” Mathias’s lawyer Yassine Bouzrou said.

“My client has committed no criminal offence. We do not understand the decision to keep him in custody, especially as he has an alibi for the night of the alleged kidnap.”

Earlier this month the Paris prosecutor’s office opened a judicial probe based on allegations by Paul Pogba that he received targeted threats from an organised gang.

Paul and his lawyer Rafaela Pimenta had filed a criminal lawsuit in August, claiming a group of men had been blackmailing him to pay them 13 million Euros for ‘protection services’ over 13 years.

Paul alleged that the group included friends from his boyhood home in the Paris suburbs and his brother.

The Juventus midfielder said he was taken to a flat in Lagny-sur-Marne in March and forced to hand over €100,000.

Pogba claims that the gang has been threatening him for four months.

These acts of intimidation were carried out in Manchester in April, and later around the Italian city of Turin, where Pogba currently plays for Juventus.

Watch this space for more.