The case involving Paul Pogba with his big brother, Mathias and his childhood friends had the effect of an earthquake on the football planet.
But the extortion attempt suffered by the world champion is not the first of its kind.
The famous Mathieu Valbuena sextape affair
Read alsoBlackmail, extortion, marabout: the sordid affair that tears the Pogba family apart
Surely the best known case is that of Mathieu Valbuena.
The latter dates back to 2015 when the former Marseille had filed a complaint after receiving several phone calls during a gathering of the Blues.
His interlocutors would have tried to blackmail him, against the non-broadcast of an intimate video.
The case takes on a whole new dimension when the name of Karim Benzema appears in the investigation.
The Madrilenian is placed in police custody and then indicted for
"complicity in attempted blackmail and participation in a criminal association"
and placed under judicial supervision.
Number nine is removed from the France team
"until the situation changes"
.
Read alsoHis career in blue, his ambitions, depression … The confidences of Paul Pogba in
Figaro
On November 24, 2021, he was found guilty of the offense of complicity in attempted blackmail.
Last summer, Karim Benzema gave up appealing his one-year suspended prison sentence and a €75,000 fine.
The paparazzi king who blackmailed David Trezeguet
It was in 2006 that the affair broke out.
Fabrizio Corona, nicknamed the "king of the paparazzi", had a snapshot of David Trezeguet leaving a Milanese nightclub with a young woman who was not his wife.
From this take begins the beginning of the blackmail.
The Italian demands money from the striker in exchange for not publishing the photo.
The 1998 world champion decides to pay 25,000 euros to the Italian.
But in 2010, the Frenchman, who was a civil party, obtained the right to be compensated and the reimbursement of the amount incurred.
David Trezeguet was not the only one threatened by Fabrizio Corona.
The latter had nearly 10,000 photos of well-known personalities.
Among the celebrities taken without their knowledge, TV stars, stylists, political heavyweights but also footballers, like David Trezeguet.
Corona had been sentenced in Milan to three years and eight months in prison for extortion and attempted extortion against Italian footballers Francesco Coco and Brazilian Adriano and motorcycle driver Marco Melandri.
In 2015, the Italian was sentenced to thirteen years and two months in prison by the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation for all of his work.
Emmanuel Adebayor betrayed by his brothers
Since the start of the Pogba affair, an interview with Emmanuel Adebayor made by Olivier Dacourt in 2018 on Canal + has resurfaced.
During this exchange, the attacker confides and explains that he was the victim of racketeering from his own family.
“I was in my room in Metz, and my older brother, who was in Germany, came to see me.
I was 16, I had to empty my account to give it to him.
»
His brother will lie to his family indicating that Emmanuel had
« given nothing »
because he had taken
« the big head »
.
But no one in the family believes the Togolese.
The story takes on a whole new dimension when his two brothers, jealous of Emmanuel's success, threaten to kill him.
“
One day after training, I was very tired and went to take a nap.
I woke up and there was a knife to my throat.
When I opened my eyes, my two brothers were there.
They were screaming and saying I was wasting their time.
Peter was getting very angry and Kola was putting up with him.
I told them If this is the only way to solve this problem… Kill me and take the money!'
That's when they put the knife on the table.
As soon as you become a footballer, as soon as you become famous, as soon as you start earning a little money, everything changes”
, regrets the former Tottenham player.
A ruined life for Yohan Mollo
In May 2022, Yohan Mollo toured the media to reveal the scam he experienced.
The former ASSE player says that his two agents, Franck Bichon and Patrick Blondeau, would have scammed him for more than ten years, taking out consumer loans in his name and buying real estate with the money of his account.
The player says he lost around fifteen million euros, and claims to be on file with the Banque de France.
The latter says he is
“ruined”.
“They took my life,”
he complains.
He believes he is the victim of an organized gang scam in which about fifteen people are involved.
The trial is due to take place in September.
Bixente Lizarazu threatened by ETA
On December 6, 2000, at their home, the parents of Bixente Lizarazu received a threatening letter in which was written: “We feel concern and anger because you have defended the colors of an enemy state.
You were largely paid to wear the shirt of an oppressive state, with money stolen from the Basques and the Basque Country.
The letter is signed by a snake coiled around the axe, the ETA logo.
This organization used to send this kind of mail to footballers to threaten them to get money.
ETA
had warned the left side that
“a non-response to their request would lead to a response against you or against your property.
Eventually, the group
disbanded in 2018 and Lizarazu suffered no attack.
But the French recognized in his biography that this period was difficult to live.
"In Germany, I went to Bayern training in a camouflaged armored sedan with weapons at hand,"
he admits.
Fabio Quagliarella's nightmare
The nightmare begins with the hacking of his MSN account.
Fabio Quagliarella asks Raffaele Piccolo, postal police inspector, to deal with this digital incident.
In 2009, the Italian received dozens of anonymous letters threatening to make public alleged links between the player and the Camorra, an Italian mafia organization based mainly in Naples, as well as evidence of pedophile relations.
In 2017, an investigation reveals that Raffaele Piccolo is the author of all his missives.
At this time, the striker does not move from his hotel located next to the Castel Volturno training center for the rest of the season.
Quagliarella left his favorite club (Naples) at the end of this one and joined the rival of always, Juventus.
The supporters then consider him at this time as the biggest traitor in the world.
It was only when Piccolo was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison that the striker revealed the hell he had been through and justified his departure from Napoli.