Pogba accused of paying witch doctor to ‘neutralise’ Mbappe

Paul Pogba’s brother, Mathias, has accused the midfielder of paying at least €4 million (£3.5m) to a witch doctor who “neutralised” Kylian Mbappe during Manchester United’s Champions League tie against Paris Saint-Germain in 2019.

Mathias Pogba is currently in custody in Paris, France as he is under investigation for his alleged role in the blackmail plot involving the former Manchester United midfielder.

Paul Pogba has accused a group of demanding €13 million (£11.2m) from him in “protection money”, essentially worth €1 million (£860,000) a year from the age of 16 when he first became a professional footballer.

Pogba, who returned to Juventus on a free transfer from United in the summer, handed over €100,000 (£85,000) to the group after being escorted at gunpoint to a flat in Roissy-en-Brie, in the eastern suburb of Paris in March.

Mathias Pogba, 32, has denied his part in the attempted blackmail but has been accused of “extortion in an organised gang” and “participation in a criminal association with a view to preparing a crime”.

On Friday, several pre-recorded video messages from Mathias Pogba surfaced online, one of which accused his brother of paying for a witch doctor to put a spell on Mbappe for United’s Champions League tie against PSG in 2019.

United lost the first leg 2-0 at Old Trafford and Pogba was sent off, but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side staged a remarkable comeback in Paris as they secured a 3-1 win in the return leg to progress to the quarter-finals.

READ ALSO:

• I used to steal food before stardom – Tems
• Eedris Abdulkareem returns home after successful kidney transplant
• Lagos police spokesman in mufti narrates encounter with armed security men at checkpoints

“The turning point came with the World Cup in 2018, where Paul had more faith in the witch doctor than in God, entrusting the witch with a big task in order to help the French team win,” Mathias Pogba said in his video.

“The witch doctor would go on to tell Mam’s [an intermediary] that the job had already been done, and that was when Mam’s would start to be scared. After that, Paul continued with his witch doctor, notably in the Champions League to ensure that Manchester United would go through against PSG.

“At the request of Paul, the witch was told to neutralise Kylian Mbappe, who back then was on a rapid rise, far outstripping Paul’s fame.

“It was strange to see that during that match Kylian was a shadow of himself against a reserve side.

“The issue is that at the same time Paul was doing everything he could to get closer to Kylian, as we could see in the media, supposedly liking him and calling him his friend, he would often call him, we would see them arm-in-arm.

“It went so far that Kylian almost made it a condition for his PSG contract extension that the club would have to sign Paul, without knowing that behind his back Paul was engaging in witchcraft to sabotage his matches.

“That same witch doctor would go on to [say] that he had to stop the ongoing curse, at risk of destroying [Mbappe’s] career, keeping in mind that he was paid by the task, knowing that my brother, always close to his money, had not paid enough for a long-term job, and that the witch wanted to make him pay as much as possible.”