Behind the scenes of the Paul Pogba affair in a documentary on the L’Équipe channel

Journalist Sébastien Tarrago investigated the international footballer’s racketeering attempt in 2022.

“We wonder how he was able to have a very high-level career with all these pressures around him,” this is the question that Sébastien Tarrago and Jules Bian-Rosa try to answer in a documentary, which takes us behind the scenes of the Pogba affair which hit the headlines in August 2022. Broadcast Thursday June 13 at 9 p.m. on the channel l’Équipe, “Paul Pogba, toxic liaisons” traces the thread of this complex affair, which counts among the protagonists the player’s childhood friends, his brother Mathias and more distant acquaintances. The incredible story of an attempted extortion of which Paul Pogba was the victim, who took his brother Mathias into custody. In this case theThe Paris prosecutor’s office requested, on Wednesday June 12, a trial before the criminal court for six people close to footballer Paul Pogba, franceinfo learned from the prosecutor’s office, confirming information from AFP.

Paul Pogba, international football player, born in Born in Lagny-sur-Marne in Seine-et-Marne, played throughout his career as a midfielder between Manchester United, Juventus Turin and the team of France. It was through childhood friends that Paul Pogba found himself in March 2022 facing armed men ordering him to pay them 13 million euros, “From then on, Paul Pogba’s life became a slump as he lived under the pressure of this racketeering attempt.explains Sébastien Tarrago. “He tried to pay these 13 million and then he ended up refusing to give them. And then it went in all directions,” he continues.

“The defendants, those accused of having wanted to steal from Paul Pogba, realized that it was not working. They went to see Mathias Pogba whom they in turn threatened,” he says. “We can also imagine that it was a set-up, that all of this was false. We don’t know yet. Justice will decide.” explains the journalist, who went to meet Mathias Pogba in Belgium. The latter, also a football player, is training as a coach. He did not wish to comment on the matter, but opens up about their family relationship and strongly suggests that things have calmed down with his little brother.

Who could have suspected what the man nicknamed “The Pickaxe” was going through? Nobody, according to the journalist, “he’s a very happy person in appearance”. Added to this slump were physical problems and then in August 2023, Paul Pogba tested positive for testosterone. He was sentenced to four years of suspension on February 29, 2024. The player announced he was appealing and since then, it has been radio silence as Sébastien Tarrago confirms: “We have warned his lawyer. Those around him advise him not to speak out until the Court of Arbitration for Sport has spoken out on the matter”. Suspended, he takes care of his children and continues to train at home in Turin. Could he return to the competition? Sébastien Tarrago responds bluntly: “If the Court of Arbitration for Sport ever reduces the suspension to two years, why not. If it’s four years, it’s over.”