Mathias Pogba, the brother of World Cup winner Paul Pogba, was sentenced to three years in prison by a Paris criminal court on Thursday, with two years suspended, in connection with a kidnapping and extortion case.
Having already spent time in detention, Mathias will serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest with electronic monitoring.
The sentence aligns with the prosecution’s request, although his lawyer confirmed plans to appeal.
The trial, which did not include Paul Pogba, stemmed from an investigation into alleged extortion attempts by Mathias and childhood friends in 2022.
Mathias Pogba stood trial last month on charges of attempted extortion and criminal conspiracy.
The five other defendants – identified by their first names only – demanded 13 million euros ($13.6 million) from the France midfielder, who was held at gunpoint by hooded men in March 2022.
The defendants repeatedly intimidated Pogba, claiming he should have supported them after he became an international football star.
They were accused of extortion, abduction and confinement to facilitate a crime, as well as criminal conspiracy.
Roushdane K., suspected of masterminding the blackmail, was sentenced to eight years in prison. The others also received jail terms.
According to reports in French media, the court also found that Paul Pogba had suffered economic losses of 197,000 euros ($204,000) and moral losses of 50,000 euros ($52,000).
It ordered all the defendants except Mathias Pogba to pay this sum to the former Juventus player jointly.
During the investigation, Paul Pogba said he paid 100,000 euros ($104,000) to the organized group, including his brother.
The case became public after Mathias Pogba posted threats on social media to share “explosive” revelations about his brother, fellow French star Kylian Mbappé and Paul Pogba’s agent Rafaela Pimenta. Mathias was also a football player who spent most of his career with lower-tier teams in Europe.
Once one of the world’s top midfielders, Pogba has made headlines in recent years more often for his off-field problems than for his sporting ability.
Earlier this month, Juventus said it came to “a mutual agreement” with Pogba to cancel his contract, despite the France World Cup winner having a ban for doping reduced last month. The Serie A club never seemed overly enthusiastic about welcoming Pogba back after his four-year ban for doping was cut to 18 months following an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Pogba will be free to resume his career in March.
Pogba tested positive for testosterone in August 2022 and was handed the maximum punishment by Italy’s anti-doping court.
However, CAS judges reduced Pogba’s ban, acknowledging a lack of intent and ruling that his positive test resulted from accidentally taking a supplement prescribed by a doctor in Florida. Pogba’s contract with Juventus was set to expire in June 2026.
In 2016, Pogba became the then-most expensive football player in history when he joined Manchester United from Juventus for a fee of 105 million euros ($116 million).
He starred in France’s World Cup triumph in 2018 but returned to Juventus as a free agent in 2022. Injuries limited him to just eight Serie A appearances in his second spell at the club before his ban last year.