Paris (AFP) - Six men linked to France midfielder Paul Pogba, including one of his brothers, went on trial in Paris on Tuesday accused of blackmail, attempted extortion of millions of euros and holding the player at gunpoint.

The case at the Paris criminal court has shocked the French football world – all the more so because the alleged perpetrators include three childhood friends and Pogba’s own brother Mathias.

Tuesday’s trial comes on top of professional woes for Pogba, whose career has struggled since France’s spectacular 2018 World Cup win when he scored against Croatia in the Moscow final.

He suffered through repeated injuries and patchy form that led to his 2022 departure from Manchester United, returning to Juventus where he remained in and out of treatment.

The Turin club this month cancelled his contract following his 18-month suspension until March 2025 for doping.

The six defendants in Paris are accused of attempting to squeeze 13 million euros ($13.5 million) out of Pogba.

All, including Mathias, and one defendant who has been remanded in custody, were present in court as the trial opened. Paul Pogba himself was not present and his lawyers have said he will not attend the trial.

Defence lawyers asked for the trial to be adjourned on procedural grounds with the court due to rule later.

Mathias was the one to go public in the case, publishing a video on social media in August 2022 promising revelations about his younger brother that were “likely to be explosive”.

In a subsequent clip, Mathias accused Paul Pogba of casting an evil spell on his France teammate Kylian Mbappe.

Paul Pogba’s lawyers and his agent Rafaela Pimenta said in a statement later that the videos “came on top of threats and attempts at extortion”.

He had already filed criminal complaints in Italy and France in July that year.

- ‘Tricked by childhood friends’ -

Pogba told French investigators he had in March 2022 been “tricked by childhood friends” from the gritty Paris suburb where he and Mathias grew up.

He accused them of snatching him before he was held at gunpoint by two hooded men with assault rifles, demanding 13 million euros for “services rendered” and blaming him for not helping them financially.

Pogba said at the time that he had paid them only 100,000 euros.

The footballer said he had also been pressured at the France national team’s training centre in Clairefontaine, at one of his homes in Manchester, and at Juventus’s training ground.

Pogba added that he had also paid a bill of more than 57,000 euros that the same friends had racked up at the Adidas store on Paris’s glitzy Champs-Elysees avenue.

“It’s been really difficult for me off the pitch, what’s happened, it’s been especially hard mentally,” Pogba told broadcaster Al-Jazeera at the end of last season.

“Money changes people, it’s the truth, it can destroy a family, start a war.”

Pogba’s lawyer Pierre-Jean Douvier declined to comment ahead of the case when contacted by AFP.

His friends have all denied the allegations.

They had “a friendly relationship, with chats, joking around, and alongside that, yes, maybe Paul Pogba gave them a helping hand,” said Karim Morand-Lahouazi, a lawyer for one of the accused.

A police overview of the case seen by AFP calls the childhood friends and other acquaintances of Pogba “a criminal team… with the objective of extracting 13 million euros from Paul, who had cut them off financially” early in 2022.

The accused claim they themselves were also victims of the hooded men who held Pogba at gunpoint, and who have never been identified.

Five of the accused face charges of extortion, kidnapping and forming a criminal gang.

Mathias Pogba, who was not present the night his brother was snatched, is suspected of “pressuring his brother Paul and his family to ensure the payment of the sum of 13 million euros” and is charged with attempted extortion.