“What was planned was a meeting between friends, to have a good time.” On the second day of the trial of people close to Paul Pogba, on Wednesday, November 27, Machikour K., the first defendant to appear before the 16^th correctional chamber of the Paris court for the attempted extortion of the football player, delivered a line of defense that would be echoed by several of his co-defendants.

With a big black parka and short, trimmed beard, the man who introduced himself as a restaurant manager kept downplaying his role throughout the four hours of questioning and telling a completely different story from the one the prosecution presented: that of a staged operation to frighten the football star and extract a large sum of money from him.

Five childhood friends of the former Juventus player are charged with extortion, attempted extortion, kidnapping and criminal association on the night of March 19-20, 2022, and in the days that followed. Paul Pogba’s brother Mathias is on trial for attempted extortion and criminal conspiracy. At the center of attention and denial is the infamous night when the footballer was taken by his “quasi-brothers” to an apartment – rented on a platform – in Montévrain, east of Paris, then held at gunpoint by two heavily armed individuals who demanded he pay them €13 million.

No, there was no intention to demand money from the wealthy midfielder, the first two defendants heard by the court kept repeating. “It wasn’t planned,” argued Machikour K., known as “Mach.” Nothing had been organized or planned in advance: The group simply intended to take advantage of their friend’s visit to France to “sort things out with Paul,” explained the 36-year-old. The date of the French national team gathering, which Paul was participating in, was well known to everyone, but according to Machikour, it all happened spontaneously. That evening, Paul came to the home of Adama C.’s parents, whom he had known since childhood, and spent three hours there before joining the rest of the group for a “chat.”

A ‘project’ to be financed by the champion

Adama C., who spoke before the court on November 28, repeated the same refrain: “Every time he goes back to France, Paul comes to the neighborhood to see us, unannounced.” He welcomed the player with his brother at his parents’ home. Adama was Paul’s confidant, the person through whom requests for “help” from friends or the neighborhood were channeled. He earned his living from the many regular transfers made by the athlete – “three or four times a year, sums of €2,000 to €15,000,” he explained at the hearing. So it’s only natural that he also welcomed Roushdane K., Machikour’s older brother, to his parents’ home that evening. Roushdane had a “project” that he wanted Paul to finance.

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At the Pogba trial, the resentments of a group of friends perverted by money