PARIS (AP) — Paul Pogba’s knee injury could save France coach Didier Deschamps from having to make a painful choice.
For the midfielder’s fitness could prove to be the determining factor in deciding whether he plays at the World Cup, amid an extortion scandal that threatens to disrupt France’s preparations for the tournament in Qatar.
What would otherwise have been an injury headache for Deschamps may give him an escape from the potential migraine of another scandal to hit Les Bleus, seven years after the last one.
Defending champion France can ill afford a campaign where two of its biggest stars — Pogba and Kylian Mbappe — are embroiled in controversy.
French officials said that Pogba paid 100,000 euros (nearly $100,000) to an organized group including his brother that was trying to extort him for millions more.
French prosecutors are investigating allegations that Pogba was the target of extortion by his elder brother Mathias Pogba and childhood friends. They allegedly demanded 13 million euros (nearly $13 million) from the France midfielder.
Pogba reportedly made the payment after he was threatened by masked, armed men in a Paris apartment in March while he was in France for national team duty. The group also made demands of the midfielder at the Juventus training center in Turin. He said Mathias Pogba was among them, according to reports.
French media reports said Pogba told investigators the extortionists wanted to discredit him by claiming he asked a witch doctor to cast a spell on Mbappe — an allegation denied by Pogba.
Mathias Pogba on Sunday appeared to address the witch doctor claim in a Twitter post directed at Mbappe: “Kylian, do you understand now? I have nothing against you, what I am saying is for your own good, everything is true and known, the witch doctor is known!”
Mbappe scored for French champion Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday in a 3-0 win at Toulouse but has yet to comment on the matter.
For Deschamps, however, it must be a tiresome and worrying feeling of deja vu.
He has been in a similarly uncomfortable position before when star forward Karim Benzema was at the heart of a sex-tape scandal in the autumn of 2015, over his alleged role in blackmailing then-France teammate Mathieu Valbuena.
Both were in form and combining well on the pitch with Valbuena’s quick feet and slick runs down the right creating good scoring positions for Benzema.
That scandal also broke close to a major tournament, with France hosting the 2016 European Championship where Benzema — France’s top scorer at the 2014 World Cup — was expected to star alongside Antoine Griezmann in attack.
Deschamps was close to Benzema, too, having earlier defended the striker when he went through a long goal drought. But he decided the media spotlight would be too bright and the questions too persistent at Euro 2016, so he left both Benzema and Valbuena off the squad.
To some observers it was Deschamps at his ruthless best, others felt he was too harsh on Benzema, and that the innocent Valbuena paid an unfair price.
