JAKARTA - The accusations made by Mathias Pogba against his younger brother, Paul, threaten the peace and harmony of the French national team squad ahead of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Mathias accused Paul, who he called a traitor, of using witchcraft to try to injure his team-mate, Kylian Mbappe.
L'Equipe described the controversy between the Pogba Brothers as "a case as dirty as the potential explosion for Les Bleus".
France's national team coach Didier Deschamps now has to deal with the impact, reminiscent of past incidents between Karim Benzema and Mathieu Valbuena, when the striker was accused of being part of a 2015 sex record extortion plot.
Paul is currently injured and facing a race against time to make his way into the last squad of the World Cup for the French national team. However, as it turns out, that doesn't mean there won't be any other problems.
"Even if Pogba (Paul) doesn't arrive on time, Deschamps should face the expected media storm when an investigation opens up to threats and organized gangs extortion attempts," Vincent Garcia wrote to L'Equipe.
"With two and a half months remaining before the World Cup, Deschamps is facing an explosive situation where he has to decide what to do with (Paul) Pogba. If the facts prove, he may not support (Paul) Pogba."
French newspapers are concerned about how this case could affect Paul's performance, and even Mbappe, who has been pulled into the story by Mathias, although Paul denies the story.
There have been reports in France that Mathias plans to share a video as evidence that Paul's brother hired a mararound to injure Mbappe using magic.
For now, the French football federation has shown its full support for Paul, but it is unclear what his next brother plans.
What happened between Benzema and Valbuena?
As for the previous scandal, in November 2021 Benzema was found guilty of being involved in an attempted extortion of his former team-mate at Les Blues Valbuena for sexual recordings.
The Real Madrid player was sentenced to one year in prison suspended, which he would have to serve if the foul was repeated, and was fined 75,000 euros.
During the trial, Benzema's attorney defended the French star by claiming the player's actions exclusively to help Valbuena, without malicious intent.
The story saw the striker crossed out by Deschamps for several years, but he was eventually brought back to the team ahead of Euro 2020.
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